The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1959-12-18
Hv II. Y. I.aNCasTE. III

BY IT, Y. LANCASTER. II:
Communication is one OF Tie most
important aspects Of modern life
We can flip switzerland get the
latest news on the radio. we can
turn a dial and watch the President
of the United States address the
nation or open a session Of Con
gress, We can pick up a newspaper
and read Of happenings all over the
world. and We can Lift a telephone
Receiver and talk to a person
across the street or across the
ocean We do these things almost
automatically and take them all for
granted but il our means Of com
Inunication were suddenly shut oil
civilization would collapse and life
itself would become very difficult.
perhaps impossible.
How did it all begin? There is
communication of sorts among the
lower forms of life. Wild herds
sometimes have leaders which
stand guard while the others Craze
and warn them whenever they
sense approaching danger. Man
makes use Of this form of conlnnni-
cation when he trains dogs to stand
guard over his loved ones and prop
erty. Then there Is the mating
call, which is employed in different
ways by many species Of animals
Those animals which are dependent
upon their parents Immediately
after birth must have some way oi
letting them know its. feeding time
And so animals are able to com
rnunicate in various ways their in
stinctS Of fear, love. hunger. etc
The basis Of most human com
munication is t h t marvellous.
though occasionally irritating, Gift
Of speech. Just how human speech
developed is not quite clear. but il
must have developed as men came
to live together in groups, possibly
at first for the purpose of common
defense 1t is difficult to imagine
any form of tribal government
without some sort of speech where
by ideas relating to the welfare of
the entire group could be cornmuni-
Gated
Grunts. groans. and sign langu-
age might have sufficed for an i'm
mediate family. but when in-laws
began to associate with one an
other speech must have soon devel-
oped. Once everyone in the COM
munity got the, idea that a certain
sound represented a certain object.
a language was born. AS the rich
ness of human experience grew.
mans vocabulary grew. 1t was
natural for one man to tell another
what he had done, seen. heard, or
discovered.
It was also natural for him to
tell accumulated experience of the
community to his children and to
instruct them in things regarding
their safety and welfare At first
primitive man pro b a bly relied
lures TO convey his meanings. but
gradually spoken words must have
become more and more important
in the telling Of the story
Writing
The next important step was the
development Of writing The first
stage of this. process was the use
Of some device as an aid to mem
Dry Sometimes a messenger was
sent with notched stick. each
notch was to remind him Of some
part Of his messag e. Another yari-
ant of this method was to use a
knotted handkerchief Some of the
American Indians used wampum
beads on deerskin belts. the color
and position of these beads indi-
Gated historical events. such as
battles. and even the terms Of
treaties.
The intermediate stage in writ
ms though these stages did not
necessarily occur in chronological
order was picture writing. PRINT
tive man drew pictures of what he
had seen or done In time some of
the pictures became stereotyped
symbols of ideas, that is. a picture
such as an eye shedding a tear
might come to mean sorrow
The third stage was the develop
ment of an alphabet using a certain