GGS - Chapter 12

Next up is writing. Writing offers several advantages, including being able to organize armies, society and efficiently transfer information. Writing arose separately in two places, Sumer (Mesopotamia) and Mesoamerican (3000BC and 600BC). What dictates whether a society needs writing is whether or not it will be useful. The accounting of food production in Sumer likely started logographic writing whereby symbols were associated with words (drawn fish = fish). The great leap involved using that symbol and applying it to other words based on the same sound (creation of phonetic symbols). For example, the arrow symbol began to be used for the abstract noun "life" because both had a "ti" sound. Could be the first ever pun (rebus principle). These phonetic symbols allowed for more ideas to be conveyed beyond accounting.

With the independent innovation of language occurring only in Sumer and Mesoamerican (arguably in China and Egypt as well), how did it spread? Copying the blueprint, or having the idea inspire one's own construction? Blueprint copying saw the gradual movement from logographic symbols to a phonetic alphabet. It also involved the dropping of letters useless to the new language and the invention of new letters. One example of idea diffusion is the foundation of the Roman alphabet in making Cherokee language. Although the symbols were the same, the associated letters were completely different.

But how is this related to food production? Diamond hypothesizes that written language was only invented in societies that would find it useful in accounting. A centralized government with specialized bureaucrats fed by farmers would be required for the invention of language. The written language would then be used to keep track of debt. As one philosopher puts it, the invention of language went towards the enslavement of fellow humans. Diamond also suspects that some food producing societies didn't invent writing because of isolation or had started production too late and would have eventually done so, given more time.