| Although there is fascinating evidence to support the notion that communication is not limited to humans, this text focuses primarily on communication as practiced by Homo sapiens. It is likely that early humans, or their predecessors, conveyed signals and meaning by body language, grunts, cries, moans, and whines. The question of whether the enlarged brain or primitive speech came first in human evolution remains unresolved, but certainly speech preceded written symbols, and as groups of humans became separated and isolated, a variety of different languages evolved. |
| The acquisition of speech provided the basis for human culture based on oral communication. Ideas, traditions, and stories could be transmitted through speech from one generation to the next. Of course, spoken words are often misinterpreted, and because their transmission to others depends on memory, the meaning they convey can change dramatically with time. Later, drawings were used to represent reality and to convey meaning to objects and activities in the past and future as well as the present. Gradually, drawings were reduced to the pictographs and symbols that are found in cuneiform and hieroglyphicsearly forms of a written language. |
| Writing formed the basis for a more complex culture, for now records, ideas, and storiesoften written literally in stonecould be passed on from generation to generation. History was born! Through writing, ideas could be transmitted without distortion. Writing provided a means of communicating thoughts, feelings, and concepts without an actual presence. It made communication with faraway people possible, provided that a means of transporting the writing was available. Of course, the written messages could be appreciated only by the relatively few who could read. |
| The earliest known writing was done using a stylus to make marks on clay tablets that were then dried or baked. Soon after, writing was done on a paperlike material called papyrus, and later on parchmentdried sheep or goat skinas well as other materials. Paper, our present writing surface, originated in China and eventually spread to Europe. |
| Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century marked the beginning of a revolution in human communication. It became possible to make thousands of copies of the same document, copies that could be sent across the globe. New ideas could now spread relatively quickly to humans separated by what were then considered vast distances. |
| After Gutenberg's breakthrough, the rate of change in communication remained slow until the nineteenth century, when the metamorphosis of communication began to accelerate. Photography made it possible to |
|
cm.