When God Turned
Why did civilizations around the globe move from primarily feminine, goddess worshipping traditions to masculine, god worshiping ones, at nearly the same time?
Proposal: the development of the alphabet and the rise of literacy were the main catalysts for misogyny in human history. The process of learning alphabetic literacy rewired the human brain, leading to the dominance of left-brain thinking and the suppression of right-brain thinking, which is associated with feminine traits. This shift, in turn, led to a patriarchal society and the oppression of women.
The idea that alphabetic literacy rewired the human brain is based on a popular but unproven theory known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which argues that the structure of a language shapes the way people perceive and think about the world. While this theory has some merit, it has been widely criticized by linguists and cognitive scientists for oversimplifying the complex relationship between language, culture, and cognition.
The idea also ignores the role of myths and symbols in shaping human culture and psychology. Myths are stories that encode cultural values and beliefs and shape people's perceptions and behaviors. The symbolism of myths and rituals can also activate right-brain thinking and induce altered states of consciousness that transcend gender and linguistic barriers.
Moreover, the alphabetic language is linear and sequential, limiting the ability to convey the subtle nuances of meaning that myths and symbols can convey. While literacy certainly played a significant role in the development of human culture and society, it is overly simplistic to attribute patriarchy solely to the shift from oral to written culture.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, also known as linguistic relativity, proposes that the structure of a language shapes or limits the ways in which a speaker forms conceptions of the world. The theory has two main forms: linguistic determinism and linguistic relativism. Linguistic determinism argues that language determines thought, implying that one is incapable of understanding a concept for which the language has no name and that there is no thought without language. In contrast, linguistic relativism suggests that language influences thought, but does not determine it and that different languages may provide different perspectives on the world.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was first introduced by the American anthropological linguist Edward Sapir (1884-1939) and his student Benjamin Whorf (1897-1941) in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Sapir was interested in the relationship between language and culture, and he believed that language was not merely a tool for communication, but also a reflection of the culture in which it was used. Whorf, a student of Sapir's, expanded on this idea and argued that language shapes how people think about the world.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis gained popularity in the mid-twentieth century and has since been subject to much debate and criticism. Some linguists and psychologists have argued that the hypothesis is overly deterministic and does not take into account the complexity of human thought and perception. Others have pointed out that the evidence for the hypothesis is largely anecdotal and that it is difficult to isolate the effects of language from other cultural and social factors.
Despite these criticisms, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has had a significant impact on the fields of linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. It has inspired numerous studies on the relationship between language and thought, as well as on the role of language in shaping cultural identity and perception.
Linguistic Determinism
One of the key developments in the history of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was the refinement of the concept of linguistic determinism. In the early years of the hypothesis, linguistic determinism was often presented as a strong, absolute claim that language entirely determines thought. However, in the latter half of the twentieth century, linguists began to take a more nuanced approach and recognized that language and thought are not entirely separate entities, but rather influence each other in complex and dynamic ways.
Another important development in the history of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was the recognition of the role of culture in shaping language and thought. Linguists and anthropologists began to explore the relationship between language and culture and to recognize that language is not simply a neutral medium for communication but is also a product of cultural norms, values, and beliefs. This led to the development of the concept of linguistic relativism, which acknowledges that different languages may provide different perspectives on the world and that language is influenced by cultural context.
Over the years, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has been the subject of numerous studies and experiments. One of the most famous studies on the hypothesis was conducted by Benjamin Lee Whorf himself. Whorf studied the Hopi language, a Native American language that has a markedly different structure than English. He argued that the Hopi language, which does not use tense markers, reflects a fundamentally different way of thinking about time than English. Whorf's study has been criticized for its methodology and for its reliance on anecdotal evidence, but it remains a seminal work in the field of linguistic relativity.
More recent studies have continued to explore the relationship between language and thought. For example, researchers have studied the effects of color terms on color perception, finding that the number and specificity of color terms in a language can influence how people perceive and categorize colors. Other studies have looked at the influence of language on spatial reasoning.
One of the key arguments made by proponents of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is that different languages have different structures and grammar, which can affect how speakers of those languages think about time, space, and other aspects of the world. For example, some languages use different tenses to describe events that have already happened or are about to happen, while others do not make this distinction. This can lead to differences in the way speakers of those languages perceive the passage of time. Similarly, some languages have many different words for different shades of color, while others use a single word to describe all shades of that color. This can lead to differences in the way speakers of those languages perceive and categorize colors.
Critics of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis argue that it is difficult to test empirically and that the evidence for it is often anecdotal rather than systematic. They also point out that while language may influence thought to some extent, it is unlikely to be the sole determining factor. Other factors, such as culture, upbringing, and individual experiences, are likely to play a role as well.
The Alphabet Versus the Goddess
If you are interested in this topic, look nowhere else but to Dr. Leonard Shlain’s The Alphabet Versus the Goddess which proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Shlain argues that codified religions, or religions based on the written word, are directly responsible for the rise of patriarchy, and the written word has arguably changed how we think. He suggests that the invention of writing, particularly alphabetic writing, rewired the brains of the people who learned how to communicate using the culture-changing tool, and the human nervous system was substantially rewired when people began reading alphabets, with profound consequences for culture.
The book treats all history as one great struggle between the verbal and the visual, proposing that the process of learning alphabetic literacy was responsible for changing our relationship to the image, causing gender imbalance, and helping to give rise to patriarchal societies. Overall, the book is a paradigm-shattering work that provides a thought-provoking perspective on history and the mind, and it has inspired numerous discussions and debates among readers and scholars alike.