13.4: Theory
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Literacy and Communication
In a narrow sense, literacy is often defined as the ability to read and write. This definition is usually applied to the Venetic context as well and has been adopted to frame my previous discussion of Venetic writing. Especially following recent technological developments, however, innovative research in anthropology, psycholinguistics and semiotics has promoted a wider adoption of the term ‘literacy’ to include the ability to use a wider array of media and modes of communication ranging from the internet to special systems of notation such as mathematical and musical notation systems (e.g. Buckingham 1993; Coiro et al. 2008; Gee 2008; Kress 2003; Selber 2004). In a broader sense, therefore, literacy can be defined as the recipient’s awareness of the conventions which regulate the production, transmission and interpretation of any message, including for example emoticons, numeric codes, the mechanisms of video gaming, and the texts produced through microblogging and social networking. Verbal literacy implies the understanding and use of verbal messages (referring here to both speech and written texts) while iconic literacy entails the creation and comprehension of visual images (Kress 2003; Messaris and Moriarty 2005: 481–482). Numerous visual communication studies have investigated the differences and similarities between writing, spoken language and the language of images, with divergent conclusions (e.g. Messaris 1994; 1997; Messaris and Moriarty 2005). A pitfall sometimes identifiable in these studies is that verbal and iconic modes of communication have been described and compared mainly in terms of their semantic and syntactic properties (Messaris 1997: viii), without fully exploring how the social context and the transposition of a message on a material support may influence people’s understanding of the relation between images and words.
The Materiality of Writing: Situla art and the Venetic script as social practices
In this chapter I adopt the broader definition of literacy outlined above to compare the parallel development of Venetic writing and situla art at Iron Age Este. The relation between writing and iconography is explored by casting light on the social milieu in which people’s engagement with situla art and written texts was constructed. Following Street’s seminal volume on the social functioning and ideological value of literacy (Street 1984), research has suggested that literacy cannot be considered just as a set of technical skills, but as a historically situated social practice deeply embedded in socio-political dynamics. Literacy practices are meaningful and embedded in broader social goals and cultural practices; they are also patterned by power relations and social institutions and can be inferred from events mediated by literacy productions (in our case, for example, the rituals in which situla art objects were used). Literacy practices evolve over time and new ones are often acquired through processes of informal learning and sense making; furthermore, different literacies exist in associations with different domains of life: hence, some literacies are more dominant and visible than others (Barton and Hamilton 1998: 8).
From this perspective, both situla art and Venetic writing were entangled within the wider social background to which the entire Venetic communication system belonged. Issues of power negotiation and selected consumption according to the recipient’s social standing pertain to all means of communication and become visible through the transposition of literacy practices into material form. Having taken material form, literacy practices may deeply impact even on people’s embodiment and sensory perception, as I argue below. In this sense, both iconography and writing — as social and material products — share deep similarities of fundamental importance for this work.
Notably, the social milieu in which both situla art and writing were introduced probably consisted of various elite contexts. Ongoing contact with neighbouring populations offered Venetic dominant groups the opportunity to acquire novel techniques and materials to promote their prominence over commoners and competing peers. In this socio-political setting, it was not only writing and iconography that became means of status construction: this function must have been extended to all means of communication developing in the elite context, from the adoption of specific clothes to bodily gestures, which can be sometimes recovered through a scrutiny of the available material evidence. An example is offered by ritual drinking. The consumption and display of rare beverages and vessels by the Este elite was surely intended to convey a message (e.g. expression of wealth) which was also deeply entangled with high-ranking people’s use of writing and situla art, as discussed below.
The creation of a sophisticated ‘visual’ language which implied the display of rare and often exotic implements such as luxurious ornaments, bronze banqueting sets, situla art products and inscriptions contributed to the construction of elite identities. When first introduced in Veneto, writing itself was possibly perceived and adopted in a similar way to iconography. As many were unable to read, the script may have essentially been a means of visual display, especially on monumental gravestones (Lomas 2007: 149–150). The exhibition of powerful status symbols was also accompanied by the elaboration of ritual practices including the consumption of sophisticated beverages at elite banquets and funerary ceremonies. People’s awareness of the conventions governing the use and display of exotica and luxurious items, including situla art and early written objects ( c. 550–275 bc), was a form of literacy, in a broader sense. Being literate in this mainly visual language meant that the elites possessed adequate cultural knowledge to make sense not only of Venetic inscriptions and situla art motifs, but also of the messages encoded in the ritual gestures such as formal drinking both represented on situla art and practised in salient moments of their lives.
It is worth emphasising the strong corporeal overtones of this elite language, from the visual stimulation promoted by the brightness of polished bronze items to the tactile and visual engagements with the smoothness and luminescence of the rare colourful materials (e.g. glass and amber) used for lavish ornaments. Also rooted in bodily experience were eating practices such as meat consumption and the ingestion of alcohol, at the time presumably a rare and precious intoxicant, at least in its more sophisticated forms. The introduction and development in Veneto of these bodily practices and their representation in material forms must have promoted new elite forms of self-perception deeply rooted in high-ranking people’s engagement with rituals, objects and foodstuffs probably not available to lower social strata.