World History and Cultures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

World History and Cultures - Essay Example Writing is one of the most important inventions mankind has devised throughout history as without it, history isn’t possible. Oral traditions have long been lauded as having certain significance in carrying forward the ideologies of a given group of people, but, as can be simply proven among even small groups, oral history is not intended to be nor can it be entirely accurate. The story changes with the teller and the facts become blurred with myth. In addition, it can only be preserved for as long as there are people around interested in learning the stories and lore enough to be able to pass it down to the next generation, and a next generation interested in sitting around to hear it. The concept of the written word offers a similar mixture of truth and lies, but offers a means of preserving the history and traditions of a people. The earliest writing, the Sumarian cuneiform, is believed to have developed as a necessary means of keeping business accounts. â€Å"Some time in the late fourth millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration in the early cities of Mesopotamia reached a point at which it outstripped the power of memory of the governing elite. To record transactions in a dependable, permanent form became essential† (Robinson, 1995, p. 11). However, many scholars do not consider these early forms of pictographs true writing. â€Å"Writing only started when an organized system of signs or symbols was created that could be used to clearly record and fix all that the writer was thinking, feeling, and capable of expressing† (Ouaknin,1999, p. 18). This definition seems too broad, though, as many poets and writers will attest that there simply aren’t available words to express all that they are ‘thinking, feeling and capable of expressing’. This form of pictorial record-keeping did seem to have a relatively standard format among merchants and was capable of conveying at least some of the ideas of the writers. It can also be