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06621_Field_TCUM T186.txt
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1996-04-10
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man”—the separate individuals equal before a written code of
law. Separateness of the individual, continuity of space and of
time, and uniformity of codes are the prime marks of literate
and civilized societies. Tribal cultures like those of the Indian
and the Chinese may be greatly superior to the Western
cultures, in the range and delicacy of their perceptions and
expression. However, we are not here concerned with the
question of values, but with the configurations of societies.
Tribal cultures cannot entertain the possibility of the individual
or of the separate citizen. Their ideas of spaces and times are
neither continuous nor uniform, but compassional and
compressional in their intensity. It is in its power to extend
patterns of visual uniformity and continuity that the
“message” of the alphabet is felt by cultures.
As an intensification and extension of the visual function,