home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Understanding McLuhan
/
Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso
/
pc
/
mcluhan.dxr
/
08447_Field_TCGG T212.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-04-10
|
952b
|
16 lines
selected these places with the utmost care.
A hole in the ground is not enclosed space because, like a
triangle or a teepee, it merely exhibits the lines of force. A
square does not exhibit the lines of force, but is a translation
of such tactile space into visual terms. No such translation
occurs before writing. And anyone who takes the trouble to
read Emile Durkheim’s The Division of Labour can find the
reasons why. For until sedentary life permits some
specialization of human tasks, there is no specialization of the
sense life such as leads to the stepping up of visual intensity.
Anthropologists have suggested to me that any kind of carving
or sculpture is already an indication of some stress in the visual
area. It would seem reasonable, therefore, that nomadic people
having very little specialization of tasks or of sense life would
never develop rectangular spaces. But by the time they showed