Literacy And The Protoliterate Era

Following the period between 3400 and 2900 B.C.E., when literacy began to increase, both the individual and society managed to yield certain distinctions that characterized the protoliterate era. Protoliterate describes the early stages of literacy and the protoliterate era in this case refers to the early Mesopotamian civilization where only a select number of individuals, namely church officials who preached the word of the Lord were able to read and write. However, with Gutenberg 's invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century, the codex became more widespread, allowing for texts to be produced faster and with cheaper materials. Moreover, the Bible was able to be printed in the vernacular leading to the eventual rise in literacy.

Consequentially, Martin Luther utilized the printing press and the rise in literacy to disparage the practices of the Catholic Church with his "95 Theses" and spark the Reformation. Thus, secularism became more widespread as more and more people became literate as they took upon themselves to learn to read for the sake of reading the Bible as opposed to going to church to learn of the word of God. Individuals lost the disadvantage they previously had in expanding their field of knowledge which resulted in the loss of the supposed animalistic nature as literacy differentiates man from beast. In society, literacy led to the doing away of close, deep readings, religious fervor and the loss of the educated class ' ability to impose on the lower class. Because of the fact that in the protoliterate era, literacy and education were exclusive to the higher class and church officials, they were seen as more powerful than the lower class who were unable to even read the Bible. From the printing press that made literacy more widespread with the rapid printing of books, translation of the Bible, and the result that is the Protestant reformation, more media developed from this and so did the emphasis on the individual 's ability to interpret the word of God on his/her own as well as the

Moreover, it also works as a shield against society 's advances that may come off as oppression. If society were to hinder an individual 's knowledge by denying him/her the right to education and literacy, it gives the society a better chance to take advantage of said individual. Literacy is what distinguishes man from any other species. As states in the article "The Consequences of Literacy" literacy or language is what "enabled man to achieve a form of social organisation whose range and complexity was different in kind from that of animals" (Goody 304). What the individuals lose is the possibility of being oppressed due to what they do not know. Even today, literacy rate is considered important in classifying whether or not a nation is developed. It continues to provide a divide between those who are literate and those who are not. Back to the aforementioned quotation from "The Consequences of Literacy", literacy distinguishes man from animals, essentially. This characterizes those who are illiterate as mere animals. There are still many societies that don 't place an emphasis on proficiency in reading or writing. Would they be characterized as primordial? Wouldn 't it pave the way for a greater divide between two societies? While literate individuals have the opportunity to expand their knowledge, those who are illiterate have no basis leading the way to