Maur
Banned
Hm, i thought that's what i said too, so there must be some misunderstanding. (or mistyping).Well, I wasn't arguing that a cyclical perception of time was dependent upon literacy; quite the opposite. I was merely suggesting that preliterate societies often have a cyclical perception of time, for the reasons you've mentioned. On the flip side, though, I have to wonder whether a linear perception of time (and with it, a concept of linear progress and perhaps even an end to time) is possible at all without written records. That's more or less what I was getting at.
If the seasonal theory is right, we would need people not dependent on it who aren't literate either. In practice it'd be harder to see, as i guess there would be a lag in the change, but still, a agricultural center with some specialization after a few generations would be a place to look.