# The Alphabet Versus the Goddess
## Metadata
- Author: [[Leonard Shlain]]
- Full Title: The Alphabet Versus the Goddess
- Category: #books
## Highlights
- Extrapolating the experience of an individual to a culture, I hypothesized that when a critical mass of people within a society acquire literacy, especially alphabet literacy, left hemispheric modes of thought are reinforced at the expense of right hemispheric ones, which manifests as a decline in the status of images, women’s rights, and goddess worship. ([Location 113](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=113))
- Like a dog worrying a bone, ([Location 116](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=116))
- McLuhan’s aphorism, “the medium is the message,” is the leitmotif of this book. ([Location 206](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=206))
- Western society, based on the rule of law and ([Location 214](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=214))
- constitutional government, has increasingly affirmed the dignity of the individual, and in the last few centuries Western women have won rights and privileges not available in many other cultures. ([Location 214](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=214))
- Literacy has promoted the subjugation of women by men throughout all but the very recent history of the West. ([Location 226](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=226))
- Correlation, however, does not prove causality ([Location 230](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=230))
- competitive plausibility ([Location 232](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=232))
- One could safely assume that fish have not yet discovered water. ([Location 240](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=240))
- Note: Why can we assume that?
- trapped the thoughts; ([Location 246](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=246))
- they are concrete ([Location 253](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=253))
- Note: Abstractions.
- The meaning ([Location 256](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=256))
- progresses word by word. ([Location 256](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=256))
- Note: I don't think word by word.
- the comprehension of written words emerges in a one-at-a-time fashion. ([Location 261](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=261))
- solidly connect the feminine principle to images and the masculine one to written words. ([Location 268](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=268))
- inner, outer, and supernatural. ([Location 270](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=270))
- inner ([Location 270](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=270))
- outer, ([Location 271](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=271))
- spiritual, ([Location 272](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=272))
- some call it supernatural. ([Location 272](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=272))
- the decline of the Goddess began when some clever Sumerian first pressed a sharp stick into wet clay and invented writing. ([Location 299](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=299))
- I propose that the profound impact these ancient scriptures had upon the development of the West depended as much on their being written in an alphabet as on the moral lessons they contained. ([Location 307](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=307))
- Culture was ladled into the baby’s brain through the agency of a stunning evolutionary innovation ([Location 396](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=396))
- Note: Was it language or behavior?
- recapitulate the leap across the immense chasm crossed by our hominid ancestors ([Location 412](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=412))
- Note: Is this carrying Michelangelo’s symbolism too far?
- baby remain attached by the enmeshing web of language, ([Location 433](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=433))
- Hunting demands “cold-bloodedness” tinged with cruelty; ([Location 452](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=452))
- three factors: ([Location 461](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=461))
- I will use the terms “nature,” “natural selection,” “evolution,” and “life” interchangeably. ([Location 465](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=465))
- evolution had to rewire one lobe to accommodate speech. ([Location 484](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=484))
- The right brain perceives the world concretely ([Location 525](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=525))
- The objective world can be described, measured, and catalogued with remarkable precision, but to communicate an emotion or feeling-state we employ metaphors. ([Location 534](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=534))
- few are even unable to recognize their own faces in the mirror. ([Location 544](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=544))
- Note: Is that really so strange?
- Words are tools: the very essence of action. ([Location 567](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=567))
- Note: Tools.....action. (??)
- abstraction ([Location 587](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=587))
- better express their feelings ([Location 596](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=596))
- enhance the communication of emotions ([Location 597](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=597))
- Note: In language?
- multiple tasks simultaneously ([Location 598](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=598))
- the majority of men excelled at hunting and killing, and the majority of women excelled at gathering and nurturing. ([Location 606](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=606))
- Note: By nature?
- humans greatly refined this propitious gift. ([Location 637](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=637))
- negative connotation associated with this side, ([Location 669](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=669))
- Note: Is this a bit of a stretch?
- natural selection divided ([Location 674](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=674))
- Note: Does natural selection act (i.e. divide)?
- *Recently, researchers have identified ([Location 691](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=691))
- no specific neuronal pathways ([Location 693](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=693))
- they imposed a menarche-to-menopause tyranny over females. ([Location 731](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=731))
- powerful female deity known as the Earth Mother. ([Location 797](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=797))
- men’s need to replace the excitement of the hunt. ([Location 806](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=806))
- the boil of the men’s innate combativeness. ([Location 807](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=807))
- universal societal tendency to align the male with culture and the female with nature ([Location 864](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=864))
- Agriculture introduced the concept of land ownership and also resulted in food surpluses, which in turn created excess wealth, which translated into power. ([Location 873](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=873))
- Slavery became an integral part of the economy of those archaic states. ([Location 882](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=882))
- Agriculture made slavery feasible, ([Location 884](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=884))
- I propose that the central factor in the fall of the Goddess was a revolutionary development which occurred during the same period ([Location 899](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=899))
- Alphabets are the reason that Western culture’s perception of reality radically shifted. This is literacy’s hidden cost. ([Location 901](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=901))
- To speak, we need the cooperation of both hemispheres of the brain, ([Location 921](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=921))
- supersede spoken ([Location 926](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=926))
- One explanation of this unique feature is that it once served the hands’ function in communication. ([Location 935](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=935))
- Note: Once again Lamarkian evolution.
- Ignoring speech’s content, ([Location 950](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=950))
- It is linear Speech is framed ([Location 972](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=972))
- Note: Syntax.
- Right-brain participation is markedly reduced. ([Location 999](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=999))
- Note: Only as a proportion. No way to prove an absolute reduction.
- Placing the pen in the fighting hand etches aggression into the written word differentiating it from speech, which depends more on a bicameral cooperative effort. ([Location 1000](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1000))
- Note: More speculation.
- The triumphant march of literacy that began five thousand years ago conquered right-brain values, and, with them, the Goddess. ([Location 1007](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1007))
- Patriarchy and misogyny have been the inevitable result. ([Location 1008](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1008))
- Note: This seems like total speculation.
- Preschoolers recapitulate this early artistry when they begin to draw stick figures ([Location 1021](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1021))
- Akkadians, ([Location 1041](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1041))
- phonograms ([Location 1043](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1043))
- ideograms ([Location 1044](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1044))
- The Seven Tablets of Creation ([Location 1119](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1119))
- Three features distinguish it. ([Location 1119](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1119))
- Second, ([Location 1120](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1120))
- third, ([Location 1121](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1121))
- events—the ascendancy of written laws and the decline of feminine power—can be traced to a feature unique to writing. ([Location 1124](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1124))
- Small children can communicate effectively by the time they are four; lucid writing is an achievement high school English teachers seldom see. ([Location 1131](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1131))
- Note: Is there a correlation between the quality of writing and that of speaking?
- laws press down upon the people and can be initiated and manipulated by a privileged literate elite. ([Location 1137](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1137))
- Civil laws bear the unmistakable imprint of the rules of grammar. ([Location 1140](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1140))
- Grammar and laws ([Location 1141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1141))
- they inherently reinforce masculine principles. ([Location 1142](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1142))
- I maintain that any written method of communication skews society toward masculine values. ([Location 1337](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1337))
- The abstract alphabet encouraged abstract thinking. ([Location 1393](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1393))
- meaning emerges only when letters are strung together in a row. ([Location 1406](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1406))
- Note: Actually after the receiver decodes the message.
- Monotheism was a revolutionary idea, and many believe it is the primary legacy of the Hebrews to future generations. ([Location 1486](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1486))
- *An alphabet by definition is any form of writing that contains fewer than thirty signs. ([Location 1499](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=1499))
- “feminine” influences, photography and electromagnetism, ([Location 8025](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B006URPSJK&location=8025))