From: Michael Perelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject (1) Referring to Doug's comment on 'peoples technology' Surely MP is correct in pointing out that "Cuneiform was developed to promote state power -- that is, to do the accounts for the state."
I do not really understand this terminology at all, of 'peoples' tool'. The people do the inventions (By and large - until the creation of large homogenous states) - & the ones with any potential 'value' get taken over. (2) Doug: The Naxi people of Yunnan province do indeed have a very different language - how that may be linked to matriarchy is not immediately clear to me. But the reality anyway is that: It is a pictographic language & as far as I have been informed, has no other (written) script. This is not immediately easy for the populace to use. Moreover, the huge deliberate influx of Han emigrants is drowning any Naxi language signal to date anyway. A similar phenomenon to Tibet. Great Han Imperialism is destroying actively the nationalities (in China - the term minority is used....). Hari Kumar
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