I. Oral (3 million - 3500 bce.)

• period includes dance, song, graphics, etc.- question is how info transmitted and stored; how is culture transmitted & formed

II. (Hand) Written

• a. glyphic, syllabic, etc (3500 bce. - 750 bce. approx.)
• b. alphabetic (750 bce. - 1450 ce.)

III. Typographic (1450 - 1830 ce.)

• printing press- mass media, newpapers

IVa. Electronic I (1830s- 1940s approx.)

• telegraph, telephone, electric light
• info become independent of space; brief

IVb. Electronic II (1945- present)

• (interactive) computers, multi-media fusions
• digital- interpret continuous analog to a patterned code, and manipulate

Note on looking at history:

1. Avoid easy generalization
2. Avoid easy periodization- changes happens many ways
3. Avoid seeing cultural changes as invasions.

"Culture neither changes in quantum jumps, nor simultaneously across a whole society. Rather change- and particularly cultural change- occurs slowly, partially, at different rates for different groups and individuals, and in different forms. Particular groups and individuals attempt to incorporate, interpret, and go beyond new situations which are imposed upon them, or which they themselves have created. Some are more successful than others." Paul Rabinow, Anthropologist

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