Week 8: Reading Repsonses

·         Greene’s “Misperspectives on Literacy: A Critique of an Anglocentric Bias in histories of American Literacy

o   Greene writes, “In the Americas, the Spanish were responsible for many literacy firsts.  Some of the literacy firsts in the US are the following:

§  The first recordings of births, deaths, and marriages

§  The first basic reading grammar text

§  The first theatrical works

§  The first schools

§  The first written musical compositions

§  The first maps

§  The first petitions

§  The first European signature artifact

§  The first written translations of books into Indian languages

§  The first scientific journals
*Not a complete citation

·         I never realized until reading this piece how influential the Spanish were to forming and shaping the language and practices I am involved with on a daily basis.  With English being such a Germanic language, I never would have thought Spanish to be such an important aspect of the English language.  Maybe not to our language itself, but Spanish had more of a impact in the practices we take part in (i.e. recordings of important events, maps, scientific journals, etc.).  I suppose I should never take for granted what I think I already know how the language I use every day or the practices it employs.

·         Mignolo’s “The Materiality of Reading and Writing Cultures: The Chain of Sounds, Graphic Signs, and Sign Carriers”

o   Mignolo writes, “Writing is a communicative device common to all cultures, although its conceptualizations and uses diverge and not every member of a community has access to writing, whereas in Walter Ong’s conception, writing is limited to alphabetic or syllabic systems.

§  So if I’m understanding this correctly, Mignolo is saying that everyone can write (whatever writing means to him…?? But then what is that?) and Ong is saying that writing can only be achieved through an alphabet or syllabic systems?  So I’m inferring from that that Mignolo is viewing writing as any type of pictures, symbols, scribble..?  Once again, what is writing? Not to be confused with the most popular of questions: what is literacy?  I suppose that we will never have a solid definition for the two because they are such universal concepts and with that, comes extreme differences.