I like this quote. Music certainly preceded writing, and it probably started with drumming - writing started with the cave-paintings before is became a collection of abstract symbols.

I wonder which came first, drumming as rhythmic music or drumming as communication, to let the downwind tribe know that a mastodon was nearby?

And I wonder if it's true that rope came before pictoral writing... children scribble long before they learn to twine or braid.

This was a little offbeat for a quote but I enjoyed pondering on it and couldn't resist. Meldy, I think there are still tribes which have little "writing", perhaps just symbols but make intricate baskets and fishing nets and even clothing from vines and palm fibers for example. I suppose if our infants saw us plaiting grass mats instead of writing then rope might indeed come first. Interesting to contemplate. josh

the first "rope" was probably vines or rawhide strips. The idea of using a symbol of some sort probably came soon after or maybe even before. Something along the order of a line pointing in the direction of the river or a path.

Wouldn't it be a treat to find the guy that thought up something like writing? Was he trying to send a message to someone? Just think, making up a process that meant a
lot with no previous experience. How gradually did it come about? Pictorial writing, as in cave painting, were undoubtely one of the first steps, but how did it go from there?

I suspect that writing came about because we lost our earlier primal sense of acute smell, when we traded that area of our brain in for more intelligence. I don't think peeing on a tree to mark our paths would work for us anymore. However, it would prolly work for the wildcat who is looking for us. LOL.

I was in my thirties when I decided to teach myself crochet and I was blown away by what one could do with a little crooked stick and a piece of thread. Learning to weave with no loom but just threads tied to a chairback came next. I soon graduated to a small tabletop loom but that sense of wonder stayed with me. I too wondered about those first attempts. josh

I'm thinking of writing as being a deliberately made mark which holds meaning to someone/s other than the maker. Thus, a blazed tree would qualify if it was meant -- and read as -- "the trail is this way". Communication, understandable by one unknown to the marker.

I remember reading about bent trees, that is, living trees which were deliberately bent to right angles to indicate a trail direction. No doubt the rope did indeed precede the bend.

I think the drumming to communicate from tribe to tribe was like primitive music - it had to have patterns and "notes" that signified certain things.

And were smoke signals only used by native Americans...was that form of communication "writing"? josh

Smoke signals? I suppose that would depend upon whether one considers writing to be a form of communication based upon the application of one material upon another to leave marks which can be "read" later by someone else, or whether writing can be a form of visual communication without permanency. Think of 'invisible ink' before replying.

Personally, I think that to be defined as writing, the marks must be capable of conveying intangibles to an unknown person. And yet, that definition applies to Art more than to written communication. This is where I shrug and say, 'back to the drawing board' or maybe I should say, 'back to the reference books on graphological history'.