Memory, in its incipient stages (comparable to childhood, at the
beginning of human culture), as well as in its new functions
today, deserves our entire attention. For the time being, we can
confidently assume that before cultural memory was established,
genetic memory, from genetic code to the inner clock and
homeostatic mechanisms, dominated the inheritance mechanisms
related to survival, reproduction, and social interaction. The
emphasis brought by words is from inheritance to transmission of
experience. Rituals changed; they integrated verbal language and
gained a new status-syncretic projections of the community.
Language opened the possibility to describe efficient courses of
action. It also described generic programs for such diverse
activities as navigating, hunting, fire-making, producing tools,
etc. Expressions in language were of a level of generality that
direct action and the ritual could not reach.
In images preceding words, thought and action followed a circular
sequence: one was embedded in the other. A circular relation
corresponded to the reduced scale of the incipient species: no
growth, input and output in balance. Only when the circle was
opened was a sense of progression ascertained. The circular
framework can be easily defined as corresponding to the identity
between the result of the effort and the effort. Obviously,
chasing and catching prey required a major physical effort. The
reward at this stage was nothing more nor less than satisfied
hunger. Let us divide the result by the effort. The outcome of
this division is a very intuitive representation of efficiency or
usefulness. The circular stage maintained the two variables close
to each other, and the ratio around the value of 1:1.
The framework of linear relations started with awareness of how
efforts could be reduced and usefulness increased. The linear
sequence of activities was deterministically connected-the
stronger the person, the more powerful in throwing, thrusting
and hauling; the longer the legs, the faster the run, etc.
Language was a product of the change from the circular
framework, embodied in foraging, but also a factor affecting the
dynamics and the direction followed, i.e., agriculture. In
language the circle was opened in the sense that sequences were
made possible and generality, once achieved, generated further
levels of generality. From direct interaction coordinated by
instinct, biological rhythm, etc., to interaction coordinated by
melodic sound, movement, fire signals, to communication based on
words, the human species ascertained its existence among other
species. It also ascertained a sense of purpose and progression.
The pragmatics of myths is one of progression. It extends well
into our age, in forms that suit the scale of
humankind-progression from tribal life to the polis, ancient
cities-and its activities. In today's terminology, we can look at
myths as algorithms of practical life. In the ritual, giving
birth, selecting a mate, fruitful sexual relations-all related
to reproduction and death-could be approached within the implicit
circularity of action-reaction. In myths, the word of the
language conveys a relatively depersonalized experience
available to each and all. Since it was objectified in language,
it took on the semblance of rules. In language, things are
remembered; but also forgotten, or made forgotten, for reasons
having to do with new circumstances of work and social life.
Change in experience was reflected in the change of everything
pertinent to the experience as it was preserved in language.
Quite often, in the act of transmitting experience, details were
changed, myths were transmuted. They became new programs for new
goals and new circumstances of work.
Generally speaking, the emergence and cultural acquisition of
language and the change of status of the human being from Homo
Faber (tool-using human) to Homo Sapiens (thinking human) were
parallel processes within the pragmatic framework of linear
relations between actions and results. The pre-language stage of
relatively homogeneous activities, of directness and
immediateness, of relative equality between the effort and the
result progressively came to an end. The need to describe,
categorize, store, and retrieve the content of diversified,
indirect, mediated experience was projected into the reality of
language, within the experience of human self- constitution. The
relevance of experience to the task at hand was replaced by the
anticipated relevancy of structuring future tasks in order to
minimize effort and maximize outcome.