The Alphabet Versus the Goddess

This is a book that of which I am not a fan. _The Alphabet Versus the Goddess_, by Leonard Shlain, argues that the development of the written word allowed patriarchy to flourish. Sigh.

Shlain’s background was in surgery, and the premise of his thesis is rooted in physical claims. “Alphabet literacy,” he asserts, gains meaning from “sequence, analysis, and abstraction” which is masculine, according to him. This is in contrast to image processing that uses “wholeness, simultaneity, and synthesis,” which for Shlain, means femininity.

All kinds of problems with this idea — the association of sequential with masculine and wholeness with feminine, for one. And there is no evidence that societies with literacy were processing thoughts in a masculine way due to their reading.

But it is true that human cultures which developed the written word tended to be patriarchal, or male-dominated. Even when women in early civilizations did learn to write (and lots of examples do exist), the overall pattern certainly remains. IMHO, it’s mainly because the ability to write necessitated special training, and patriarchal cultures didn’t spend that sort of effort on women, generally. In other words, patriarchy preceded literacy.

However, the introduction of writing undoubtedly allowed people to keep track of the sale and ownership of possessions more. And a lot of patriarchies were generated by a desire to keep wealth and status within a family line. The most credit I’m giving to Shlain’s argument is that the use of writing might have made patriarchies easier to maintain.