WEBVTT - The Alphabet and the Goddess, Part 2 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:14.239 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:17.120 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:18.840 And this is going to be part two of our 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:23.560 two part discussion about Leonard slain book The Alphabet Versus 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:29.240 the Goddess, which argues that literacy and writing, especially alphabetic writing, 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.080 led to a demotion of the status of women and 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:38.560 goddesses and a promotion or arise in patriarchal religions and cultures. 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.000 So if you haven't listened to that first episode, you 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.720 go back check that one out, so this one makes sense. 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.360 But for a basic refresher, last time we discussed goddesses, 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.479 we talked about Anano, we talked about Thetis, and we 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:55.080 outlined the basics of Leonard Slain's hypothesis. His main claim 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:58.640 is that human evolution led to a gender division and 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:02.160 brain hemisphere. Favorite is um that men and women biologically 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:04.480 with their brains, can do pretty much the same things 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.199 if they want to, but that the division of labor 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.880 and hunter gatherer culture tended to favor a brain lateralized 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:13.440 division of labor, where men were usually more left brain 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.480 oriented because men had to be the hunters, and that 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:20.280 that hunting required left brain emphasies on things like sequential 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.840 detail based thinking, uh, and emotional coldness and cruelty. And 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:27.119 then on the other hand, you had women more often 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.800 being selected for labor that favor favored right brain type 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:37.760 stuff like emotional intuitions, empathy, nurturing, education, speech as opposed 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:41.840 to written language and images. And so Schlain thinks, what 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.520 that the introduction of writing kind of messed things up. 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.680 It shifted human culture to favor the left brain perceptual 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:54.000 modes which traditionally had been associated with men males of 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.240 the species, and that that gave rise to patriarchy and 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:01.400 patriarchal culture. Yeah, it's such a puloss hypothesis. I'd really 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:03.120 I haven't been able to get it out of my 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.960 mind since we first started researching it. Yeah, it's one 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.079 of those that, as we said last time, even if 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.320 we don't necessarily think his argument is convincing, or if 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:14.480 you know, he hasn't necessarily made his case that this 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.280 is really how it happened, it certainly brings up a 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.079 lot of interesting subjects along the way, and so he 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.680 raises interesting questions. Even if he's not ultimately right, and 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.800 I'm I'm pretty sure I'm not convinced by his argument 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:30.040 in the end, But it's a fascinating book. Nonetheless. Yeah, 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:33.240 like I said, it forces you to to rethink what language, 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.560 what written language, does to us, and and why the 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:39.560 status of the goddess is so diminished in our world, 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:41.760 to the point where I was telling my son, who's 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:44.079 only he's only six, just barely six, I was telling 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.040 him about goddesses, and then later that day we see 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:49.400 a representation of a goddess and he refers to it 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.240 as a lady god. I'm like, no, actually, it's it's 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.760 a goddess. It is. Uh, it's not just a lady 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.280 version of this other thing it is. It's really kind 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:00.920 of the primordial thing you should be swing it a 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:04.799 man goddess. Yeah, exactly. That That makes me think, like 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.040 it's so deeply embedded. Now, I'm not calling your son 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.040 a sexist, but I'm saying, like, you know, how what 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.919 how come we see a goddess and we think that's 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.400 a lady god instead of seeing a male god and 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:19.200 think that's a male goddess. Yeah, I mean, it's he's 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.160 not sexist, but he he is growing up in a 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.400 world that is that is ruled by by by patriarchy, 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.720 and you can, you can try and balance out of 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.480 child's upbringing as much as possible, but they're still growing 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.320 up exposed to that larger world. Yeah, and growing up 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.840 with the legacy of you know, hundreds or thousands of 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.160 years of literature and archetypes, and you know, it's it's 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:44.840 they're not just in the full works of literature, but 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.400 it's there in the metaphors we use in everyday speech. 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.280 They tend to have a kind of patriarchal slant to them, 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.280 or at least one that associates valued cultural traits or 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.640 valued activities with men and men's behavior, and that goes 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.240 back through history. Uh, maybe only the fifty pages or 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.320 so of Schlane's book are actually the part where he's 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:09.440 outlining his hypothesis about evolution and brain lateralization um and 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:11.520 and how writing affects that, And then most of the 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.960 rest of the book is just him exploring cultures and 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:19.920 time periods throughout history when the status of writing changed 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.080 or when writing was introduced, and what happens to the 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.719 cultures there. Like one of the examples he talks about 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:29.880 is in ancient Mesopotamia, with the introduction of cune of 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.799 form and professionalized scribes and things like that, when writing 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.320 was professionalized, you know. He thinks that this leads to 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.599 the introduction of the idea of written law codes instead 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.280 of unwritten norms of behavior, govering what's acceptable and what's 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:48.440 not acceptable to do in society. And so Slaine looks 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:52.239 at some of the misogynistic qualities of the earliest written 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:55.320 law codes and says, hmmm, it looks it looks to 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:59.400 him like maybe the introduction of writing itself somehow coincided 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:04.840 with a sharp turn towards misogynistic standards of conduct in society. Now. 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:06.320 Of course, sh Lane spends a lot of time with 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:08.719 the Greeks because there's a lot of mythological and historical 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:12.520 content to discuss there. And he points to the comparison 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.760 to be made between Athens and Sparta as an example 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.920 of how the spread of the written word pushed uh 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:23.200 the goddess and just female power to the periphery of 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.240 Greek culture, and he says that they're it's they're perfect 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.440 examples to compare because they both spoke the same language, 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:33.039 they worship the same gods, they spoken and wrote the 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.560 same language, but the two big differences, he says, emerge 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.600 in their treatment of women and their attitudes towards the alphabet. 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.320 That's interesting. Yeah, so let's talk about Sparta. I will 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:48.160 I will present to you that this is Sparta. Uh yeah, 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:50.840 I mean you bring up the example by illusion. If 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.600 you were only to be trained on modern pop culture, 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.400 you would tend to think of Sparta as very macho. 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.320 So so you might be curious, how could how could 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:01.640 Sparta be more more pro woman than Athens? Yeah? How 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:03.599 could a place that is we we've we've come to 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.599 define it by beards and six packs, like what what? 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.800 What in there is empowering to women? Well? Certainly they 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:15.120 were a militaristic society with little use for literacy. They 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:19.600 produced no playwrights, philosophers, or historians that that really resonated 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:24.360 beyond their own age. Their law, which was formulated by Lesurgis, 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.440 was not written down. Everyone had to memorize it instead, 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.240 and Plutarch even reported that there was a Spartan law 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:37.640 against committing any law to writing. What Yeah crazy? Uh So. 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.640 On the other hand, they of course glorified deprecation and cruelty. Uh. 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:45.839 Their government was an oligarchy with with definite fascist leanings. 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:50.479 But then compare this this place to Athens, Okay. Athens 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.240 certainly is a fountain of culture, democracy, law, but it's 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.240 also a place where women were excluded from education, government 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.960 and public affairs. The the Athenian law of her Solon 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.159 denied women the right to buy or sell land, and 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.560 women were just considered property. A father could dissolve his 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.520 daughter's marriage. Uh. And even though the muses were considered 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:15.920 feminine deities, uh, the artists were not. The artists were male. 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.240 So Sparta, on the other hand, quote educated girls in 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:23.640 nearly the same manner as boys. Women wore less restrictive clothing, 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.920 and they also competed in athletic games. They ruled the 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.400 household while the men were away at war, and they 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.880 owned and sold property. In fact, by the fourth century 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:36.920 b C. Women owned two fifths of all Spartan land 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.800 Fritish land. Here's a quote from Slane's book. Spartan's honored 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.760 women's life giving role and considered it equal to that 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:47.520 of their warriors. To immortalize his name by having it 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.760 inscribed on his tombstone, a Spartan man had to die 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:53.960 in combat to win the same honor a Spartan woman 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:58.440 had to perish in childbirth. And another effect that he 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:03.040 points out is that ATHENI demanded fidelity, virginity, and chastity 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.520 among the women, but Spartan women were not so restrained. 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.280 So again he argues that this, this is a great 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.840 bit of evidence to support his hypothesis, because you have 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.000 you have kind of a wonderful uh uh, you know, 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:20.640 a versus b testing situation here with with Athens on 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:22.800 one hand and Sparta on the other. Yeah, these two 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.640 civic societies that, at least if he's correct, he's claiming 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.000 are are very similar, except by the cultural differences that 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.439 are derived from one being highly literate in the elites 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:34.880 and the other not being so fond of of written 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:38.200 down words. Yeah, it's a really interesting idea to compare 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.600 the two like that. And I wonder what a scholar 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.079 of ancient Greece would think looking at that. I mean, 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.040 would a scholar of ancient Greece say, yes, those those 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:51.760 comparisons are valid or or is picking? Yeah, Shlane cherry picking. 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.000 You always gotta wonder if Slane's cherry picking, because I 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.760 get the sense sometimes he may be doing that in 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:58.960 support of his argument, But at least in the moment 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.160 while you're reading it, it seems very persuasive. Yeah, I 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:03.280 can't help. But wonder if if one were to really 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:06.120 get into some of the details of Sparta's brutality, if 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:09.680 that would um, even that would go against Stoyan's argument here. 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:12.920 But but but I have not looked at that data yet. Yeah. Hey, 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:14.760 if you're a listener out there and you are an 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:17.680 ancient Greek historian or a historian of ancient Greece, especially 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.080 if you're an ancient Greek, if you travel through time, 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.880 do do rings up. We'll get somebody to translate. Yeah, 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:25.920 but either way, please get in touch with us. Let 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:27.720 us know what you think about that is. Is that 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.079 on target? Is it bunk? We'd be interested to hear 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.120 your thoughts. Um. But yeah, So he talks about many 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:36.760 ancient cultures. He talks about ancient Egypt, he talks about Mesopotamia, 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.800 giving examples as he goes throughout of where he sees 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.520 the introduction of the written word or parts of the 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:47.680 society that favored the written word, causing women's position to 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.040 go into a relative decline and even leading in many 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.800 cases to these types of violent misogyny that we see 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:56.320 in say, the Code of Hammurabi, the you know, the 0:09:56.320 --> 0:10:00.040 written law codes of ancient Mesopotamia. But I think we 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.040 should look at another interesting example that maybe goes a 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.559 little bit counter to his theory, or at least see 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:09.160 how he deals with it. And that example would be China. 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:11.240 So we'll take a look at sh Lane's thoughts on 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.839 ancient China after we come back from this break. Thank you, 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:18.160 thank you. Alright, we're back, okay. So we were going 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:22.080 to discuss Leonard Schlane's treatment of ancient China. I was 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:24.760 curious what he would do with this, because part of 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:28.560 his idea is that the sequential reading of letters in 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:32.560 alphabetic script is what tends to favor this like this 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.680 male dominant way of thinking in the brain. But of 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.800 course Chinese script doesn't exactly work that way, right, that's right, 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:43.199 I mean China. The Chinese language does not have an alphabet, 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:45.640 so it would seem to be a very difficult thing 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.280 to fit into this theory. So I do want to 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.280 discuss some of the key points that he makes in 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:55.560 discussing Chinese culture Chinese language. So he points to the 0:10:55.600 --> 0:11:00.440 evidence of preliterate female centric Chinese culture, and indeed there 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:03.800 are some very powerful goddesses in Chinese myths, such as 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:07.000 the creatrix goddess uh Nua. But he also makes the 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:09.840 following points about about Chinese language. He says, there's no 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:14.000 tensh calligraphy is is visual artistic in ways that Western 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.600 script doesn't have to be. There's more poetry, entity says, 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.280 and and so it would seem to be a right 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:25.320 hemisphere written language, and there's actually some sided evidence to 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:28.440 back that up, he says. Quote researchers tested a select 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.520 group of Chinese and English speaking individuals who had learned 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.320 to read and write both languages as small children, and 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:38.079 who later in life had experienced damage to one hemisphere 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.439 or the other. Right handed Subjects who had damage to 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:45.000 their left hemispheres lost the ability to speak either Chinese 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.920 or English, and although they could not write English, they 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:52.120 retained a limited ability to communicate in written Chinese. Those 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:56.320 with damage to their right hemispheres could still speak Chinese 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:58.719 and English, and although they could write English, they had 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:04.280 difficulty writing Chinese. However, Schlein stresses that that all of 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:07.240 this language, even though it might be tipped a little 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.960 more in the direction of the feminine, it still diminishes 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.960 the role of the nonverbal component of speech. Chinese character 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.120 still must be read in sequence. They and they are, 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:22.000 as we discussed in the Chinese Typewriter episode abstract inform, 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.760 there's a certain reductionism involved in consuming it. And so 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.559 he argues that the Chinese writing is still much closer 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.559 to the alphabet than it is to oral communication and uh. 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:36.319 And it's this proximity that makes it a masculizing influence 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.520 on Chinese culture. And he also points out that the 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.800 following he says that quote the tentacles of literacy began 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.560 to wrap around the minds of the Chinese people in 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.800 the sixth century b c. And then this is around 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.839 the same time that Taoism and Confucianism emerge, so that 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.600 this is fascinating. He points out that Taoism embodies feminine values, 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.480 no attempt to control others, and promotes mother Nature as 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:00.880 a guide. And and this is where we get the 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.600 symbol of the yin yang, of the of of of 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:07.360 the two opposing forces feminine and masculine. Yeah, he portrays 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:11.760 Daoism is very is very feminine friendly. Yeah. On the 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:15.520 other hand, he says that Confucism this touts masculine values, 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:20.960 UH structures, patriarchal society and UH and and a father culture. 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.960 And so these two systems of belief they coexist in 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:28.080 relative equilibrium until the Chinese invent the printing press in 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:35.319 around CE. Literacy rates sore, and soon after Daoism declines 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:39.560 and Confucism becomes China's dominant belief system. Now, Robert, I 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.079 know you're very interested in Chinese history. How how does 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.240 that square with your understanding of the development and culture 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:48.920 and the role of Daoism versus Confucism. Well, I love 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:52.400 the way he's looking at this, uh, this sort of 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:56.679 tug of war between Taoism and Confucism. But but then 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.120 to come back around and and say, but it's the 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.440 it's the written language that is the key, when clearly 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:06.520 you have these two different worldviews that are having, you know, 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:11.480 enormous effect on Chinese culture. Um. I think it's an 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:15.720 interesting read, but it feels like written language is just 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.120 one of several factors at work here, you know, which 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:22.760 I guess is kind of my my response to the 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:26.240 whole hypothesis. Well, I would say that throughout many of 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.920 his discussions in in different times in history. I think 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:34.640 one problem with his hypothesis is that he over generalizes 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:41.160 the the pro female or anti female characteristics of cultures 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:43.920 or ways of thinking. You know, he characters tends to 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.280 characterize something as either like, you know, this this way 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.720 of thinking was very anti woman, or this way of 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.640 thinking was very pro woman, when I think in both 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.440 cases there's usually a little more nuanced than he's letting on. 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:00.280 I agree, Like one example from the Western history is 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.360 when he gets into the idea of like medieval medieval 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:09.080 Catholicism being pro woman, but then the Protestant Reformation and 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.920 the subsequent Catholic reaction to the Protestant Reformation being anti woman. 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.000 I think you're more likely to find strong strains of 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.480 misogyny in both, but examples of women breaking through it 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:22.800 in both cases, right. And then also, of course we're 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:26.080 realizing that you have varying levels, varying class levels in 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:30.080 any given um group. So I mean, for instance, in 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.880 medieval Europe, you're gonna have some women who are who 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.760 are nuns and are a part of the religious hierarchy. Uh, 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:39.480 and then you're gonna have some that are that are 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.440 simply peasants. You're gonna have some that are royalty. Likewise, 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.640 in Chinese history, when you get into the era of footbinding, 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:47.840 you're going to have you're gonna have members of the 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:50.960 upper class who are who are who end up being 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.440 a part of footbinding culture. Then you're gonna have women 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:57.040 in lower classes who can who are not part of it, 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.880 part in many parts in many instances due the fact 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.720 they do have to work and contribute. Not to get 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.640 too much into foot binding, that it's another fascinating and 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:09.160 disturbing topic all on its own. So in Schlane's book, 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:11.520 we come back time and time again to the notion 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.440 that the medium is the message. We go from oral 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.880 tradition to written records, eventually compounded by the advent of 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:22.360 printing press technology. With any key upheavals in society aligned 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:26.040 and his hypothesis with the with the technology and the 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:30.760 literacy of its people, masculine powers entrenched themselves. The trend 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.200 continues unabated through the world wars of the twentieth century, 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:37.880 with some impact from the advent of photography. That's an 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:42.600 interesting thing. He essentially says that we're retreating back away 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.440 from some of the patriarchy and that women are gaining 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:49.840 more rights to some degree because of photography and the 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.120 introduction of the importance of the image back into society. 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.240 He even at one point talks about how it used 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:58.640 to be that a family was fleeing a burning home, 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.160 what would they grab. It would be the family bible. 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:03.200 That'd be the thing around which all of their family 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.560 memories were centered. It was a word, yeah, the printed text. 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:09.960 And then after the introduction of photography, it would be 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.600 the family photo album. Yeah. And then then he argues 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:17.480 that post World War Two, you see this television boom, 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:21.879 which which he says, really brings the feminine medium to prominence, 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:25.680 because this again is the triumph of the visual over 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.040 the text. Right. But one thing that's interesting is that 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:33.159 Schlane isn't always saying that, say, the left brain is 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.120 bad and the right brain is good. Right, that's right. 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.200 He brings up the example of Adolf Hitler's rise to 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.000 power in Germany, which he points out was a highly 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.880 literate nation at the time. And uh, and how did 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.680 Hitler rise to power will through the use of of 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:51.680 the of radio And he characterizes this is the dark 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:55.720 side of a sudden shift to right brain culture. Yeah, 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:59.160 So he says the ideas that Hitler used radio too 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:04.960 circumvent this sort of organized, sequential left brain thinking of 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.360 the printed word, and goes straight into people's brains by 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.280 talking to them in their ears. Is his quote, Hitler's 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:13.919 voice buried deep into the depths of the right hemisphere, 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.560 resurrecting tribal myths and rituals. Now, I wonder what he's 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.240 gonna make a twitter. Well, he does touch on the 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.159 Internet age a bit here. He points out that you 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.720 have the the invention of personal computer technology who would great, 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:29.800 which greatly changes the way people interact. You have graphic 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:34.240 icons increasingly replacing text commands, and he says that the 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:37.679 Internet and Worldwide Web are based on feminine images of 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.520 nets and webs. I don't know. That feels like kind 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:43.119 of a stretch, but but still, well, a lot of 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:45.240 his associations in the book are kind of stretching, like, 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.760 but then again, we're talking about the realm of symbols 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.480 and the power of symbols, and certainly symbols are powerful. 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:53.600 Now beyond that, he doesn't get really get much into 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.480 the contemporary world. He died in in two thousand nine 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:00.679 and this book was published in Uh, there's much I 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:02.640 think that one might say about the role of say, 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:07.000 hate speech in the primarily written world of Twitter and Reddit. 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:09.760 Um And yet at the same time, meme culture makes 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:13.879 use of images as well, often to drive home some 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:18.720 rather problematic ideas. Yeah, what about how about podcasts? Right? Well, 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:22.440 that's true right now, everybody that's listening, that's that's taking 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:24.479 in this podcast. You were listening to our voices. You're 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.560 not reading it. Um So Yeah, I feel like that 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:31.240 the world of podcast represents more of the the the 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:35.479 feminine energy that he's he describes in his book. There 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:37.800 are quite a few reasons that he seems to think 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:41.280 that the modern technological situation is going to be a 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:45.600 positive thing for the elimination of the influence of patriarchy. 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:49.880 One of which is that you've got photography and imagery everywhere. 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:52.840 Another one of which is that we depend now so 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.920 much on electricity, which he characterizes is as always being 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:00.280 described in terms of feminine power or him and in 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:05.679 type words. Another thing is that the keyboard has very 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.920 much changed the way we compose even written texts. Now, 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:11.720 the previous idea of how you'd compose a written text 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:13.919 would be that you'd write it out by hand with 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.960 your dominant hand, which is controlled by the dominant hemisphere 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:18.760 of the brain. So if you're a right handed person, 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:23.280 left hemisphere dominant brain, you'd be writing with that hemisphere. 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.080 But now we type with both hands, and so if 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.119 you're composing things on a keyboard or on a typewriter, 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.280 maybe that would somehow circumvent part of the way that 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:35.919 he believes that the left brain has been dominant in 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.320 alphabetic cultures. He even points to the fact that when 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:44.080 typewriters first came into prominence, the people who mainly focused 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:47.240 on typing for a living were women, and that typing 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:49.680 was seen as like it was kind of men who 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.960 were trying to get into typing were tweeted dismissively. Is like, oh, 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:56.520 that's the thing for women to do. That's a great point, yeah, 0:20:57.440 --> 0:20:59.560 and not something I would have necessarily thought about going 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:01.720 into this spite. I mean, we had the fact that 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:06.159 we had a whole episode that that discussed the the 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:09.159 technology of typewriters and its effect on culture. Now, I 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:13.600 will say Slane was optimistic about where we were headed 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:17.440 and what our trajectory was. Slash is as a as 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:20.840 a people should be consider this a disproof of his hypothesis. 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:22.879 It depends how you look at it. Again, you have 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:26.280 to you have to think about the various uh um 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:30.000 um you know, peaks and valleys in this various timeline 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.760 of feminine versus masculine. Yeah, it's true, we shouldn't. You know. 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.040 It's easy to be negative about how things are in 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:39.000 the present. You know, you have that bias, nativity bias, 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.960 and it's like, you know, you'll give it some time. 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:43.520 You had a few decades and then you can see 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:45.119 how things were. But this is this is what he 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.880 said in his epilogue. He said, quote, I am convinced 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.000 we are entering a new golden age, one in which 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.720 the right hemispheric values of tolerance, caring, and respect for 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:56.679 nature will we begin to ameliorate the conditions that have 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.720 prevailed for the too long period during which the left 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:03.600 him spheric values were dominant. Images of any kind are 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.200 the bomb bringing about this worldwide healing. I will take 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:10.920 more time for change to permeate and alterate world cultures, 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:13.920 but there can be no doubt that the wondrous um 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:18.560 permutations of photography and electromagnetism are transforming the world, both 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:22.520 physically and psychically. The shift to write hemispheric values through 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:25.119 the perception of images can be expected to increase the 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:28.560 sum total awareness of beauty. Yeah, one could hope some 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:31.080 version of that is true, you know. And in the 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:32.679 book he does point out that when you look at 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:36.320 the twentieth century, what are two of the most um 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:41.520 widespread images, like what, what are two pictures that are 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:44.159