[audiobook] Photography: A Critical Introduction by From Routledge at Arts-Photography

Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. An Important book for historians; archaeologists; ethnosemanticists; and other specialists in the development of writing.By The Old ProfThis excellent book is an abridgment of Schmandt-Besseratrsquo;s two volumes on the inception of writing entitled BEFORE WRITING: I FROM COUNTING TO CUNEIFORM and II A CATALOG OF NEAR EASTERN TOKENS. The professional investigator will want the full set. But this book; addressed to the general reader; is a MUST for other professionals (archaeologists; historians; anthropologists; etc.) who wish to delve into the depths of the amazing invention of writing. Note that the title of the book is ldquo;BEFORE WRITING CAME ABOUTrdquo;mdash;it is not ldquo;Before Alphabetic Writing Came About.rdquo; That would have been a book about the origin of alphabetic writing under Egyptian influence. But this book takes us much further back to about 8000 BC (the Neolithic era) when counting (and accounting) began in the ancient Near East; specifically in the Mesopotamian area of the world.She illustrates her book thoroughly with many photographs of the tokens discovered by excavators; with the clay envelopes that contained tokens; with drawings of token types and other useful interpretive material such as charts and lists of tokens. She draws on earlier contributors to the study of the beginning of civilization (such as Alexander Marshackrsquo;s THE ROOTS OF CIVILIZATION (1972)).She notes (pp. 10f) that the Akkadian term ldquo;tokenrdquo; is ABNU (singular) or ABNATI (plural) and knowledgeable investigators will recognize these as cognate with the Hebrew word EBEN and readers educated in the fields of linguistic anthropology and ethnosemantics will be aware that ldquo;ebenrdquo; (ldquo;stonerdquo;) may not always align meaningfully with the use of the cognate in another culture; i.e. ldquo;abnurdquo; (ldquo;tokenrdquo;) in Akkadian. Context is all important.Her introduction is a very good and succinct perusal of how the evolution of writingmdash;and the evolution of thinking about writingmdash;came about.On pages 20-25 she discusses why some tokens have high representation from some ancient sites whereas a nearby site may show poor examples of tokens. In some cases I suspect that the dirt was poorly sifted (as she recognizes). Israeli excavator; Gabriel Barkayrsquo;s long-going wet sifting in Jerusalem and other sites in Israel also demonstrates that the advance of excavation techniques may contribute significantly to better artefact discoveries. But I also suspect that if excavators make small finds but do not know the conceptual framework within which to set them; then they may be dismissed as ldquo;unimportant.rdquo; This is also a problem which the author discusses. Archaeologists would do well to read her presentation so that they become aware of what they may be missing.In chapter seven (pp. 111-122) the author has an interesting discussion of the emergence and evolution of the early stages of writing in Mesopotamia. Although nowhere does she mention Edward Sapir; or Benjamin Lee Whorf or the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis; I believe her discussion of this topic may be a good illustration not only about how culture and language are closely intertwined; but how ways of thinking about a topicmdash;in this discussion it is about the ancient economy and how man changed from a hunting-gathering society; to a ldquo;rankedrdquo; society; to a state economy under the ldquo;Enrdquo; or overlord who controlled his kingdom. It is one illustration of how the ldquo;strong Whorfianrdquo; view and the ldquo;weak Whorfian view is meaningful. By this I mean that her discussion illustrates not how ldquo;linguistic determinismrdquo; rigidly controls life views; but how ldquo;linguistic relativityrdquo; influences the ways man thought about thingsmdash;in this context it is the tallying of commodities or; later; the evolution of thought about how to account for those commodities. Denise Schmandt-Besserat is not deliberately providing a case study for linguistic anthropology or ethnosemantics; but it seems to me a most useful illustration of it.There is a good set of endnotes; a brief glossary (giving meanings she uses; not across the wider expanse of literature that might be relevant to the topic); and a good index. Unfortunately there is no formal bibliographymdash;either select or otherwise. One must consult the footnotes for her sources or gain access to volume II of her full work for references to previously published materials. This makes it somewhat inconvenient for the general reader who might wish to investigate the matter further.Overall; this is an important work and should bring accessibility to investigators who may not wish to purchase the two volume set.11 of 12 people found the following review helpful. An interesting scholarly book.By Z. MartinezThis book will take you through the ruins of an ancient city in Mesopotamia and then will explain the meaning of certain tablets and clay coins found there. The author is very clear in her explanations; there are plenty of pictures and graphics which make your understanding of the text easier. This book is for those who like reading scholarly material because it is very concise and precise on the subject but it could seem dry reading to those who prefer the material to be presented in a more entertaining way.I found it very interesting; and it helped me understand the transition from letters to numbers. I loved it!0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Informative and ReadableBy Rod ScherExcellent overview of the evolution of writing; by a researcher who is THE preeminent authority on the subject.