HISTORY OF COMMUNICATION

Even though all animals communicate, as human beings we have a special capacity to use
symbols to communicate about things outside our immediate temporal and spatial reality. For
example, we have the capacity to use abstract symbols, like the word education, to discuss a
concept that encapsulates many aspects of teaching and learning. We can also reflect on the past
and imagine our future. The ability to think outside our immediate reality is what allows us to
create elaborate belief systems, art, philosophy, and academic theories. Human being have the
ability to use sophisticated communication systems/symbols and at an advanced level of
abstraction compared to other animals

Some scholars speculate that humans’ first words were onomatopoetic. Onomatopoeia refers to
words that sound like that to which they refer—words like boing, drip, gurgle, swoosh,
and whack. "Pop", "boom", and "squelch" are onomatopoeic words. The word "click" is
onomatopoeic in itself. Just think about how a prehistoric human could have communicated a lot
using these words and hand gestures. He or she could use gurgle to alert others to the presence of
water or swoosh and whack to recount what happened on a hunt.

In any case, this primitive ability to communicate provided an evolutionary advantage. Those
humans who could talk were able to cooperate, share information, make better tools, impress
mates, or warn others of danger, which led them to have more offspring who were also more
predisposed to communicate. This eventually led to the development of a “Talking Culture”
during the “Talking Era.” During this 150,000 year period of human existence, ranging from
180,000 BCE to 3500 BCE, talking was the only medium of communication, aside from
gestures, that humans had.

The beginning of the “Manuscript Era,” around 3500 BCE, marked the turn from oral to
written culture. This evolution in communication corresponded with a shift to a more settled,
agrarian way of life.
As hunter-gatherers settled into small villages and began to plan ahead for how to plant, store,
protect, and trade or sell their food, they needed accounting systems to keep track of their
materials and record transactions. While such transactions were initially tracked with actual
objects that symbolized an amount—for example, five pebbles represented five measures of
grain—symbols, likely carved into clay, later served as the primary method of record
keeping. In this case, five dots might equal five measures of grain. This was the beginning of
written symbols

During this period, villages also developed class systems as more successful farmers turned
businessmen prospered and took leadership positions. Religion also became more complex, and a
new class of spiritual leaders emerged. Soon, armies were needed to protect the stockpiled
resources from others who might want to steal it. The emergence of elite classes and the rise of
armies required records and bookkeeping, which furthered the spread of written symbols.

As clergy, the ruling elite, and philosophers began to take up writing, the systems became more
complex. The turn to writing didn’t threaten the influential place of oral communication,
however. During the near 5,000-year period of the “Manuscript Era,” literacy, or the ability to
read and write, didn’t spread far beyond the most privileged in society. In fact, it wasn’t
until the 1800s that widespread literacy existed in the world.

The end of the “Manuscript Era” marked a shift toward a rapid increase in communication
technologies. The “Print Era” extended from 1450 to 1850 and was marked by the invention of
the printing press and the ability to mass-produce written texts. This 400-year period gave
way to the “Audiovisual Era,” which only lasted 140 years, from 1850 to 1990, and was
marked by the invention of radio, telegraph, telephone, and television. Our current period,
the “Internet Era,” has only lasted from 1990 until the present. This period has featured the
most rapid dispersion of a new method of communication, as the spread of the Internet and the
expansion of digital and personal media signaled the beginning of the digital age. The evolution
of communication media, from speaking to digital technology, has also influenced the field of
communication studies.
To better understand how this field of study developed, we must return to the “Manuscript Era,”
which saw the production of the earliest writings about communication. In fact, the oldest essay
and book ever found were written about communication. Although this essay and book predate
Aristotle, he is a logical person to start with when tracing the development of the
communication scholarship.

His writings on communication, although not the oldest, are the most complete and systematic.
Ancient Greek philosophers and scholars such as Aristotle theorized about the art of rhetoric,
which refers to speaking well and persuasively.

Today, we hear the word rhetoric used in negative ways. A politician, for example, may write off
his or her opponent’s statements as “just rhetoric.” This leads us to believe that rhetoric refers to
misleading, false, or unethical communication, which is not at all in keeping with the usage of
the word by ancient or contemporary communication experts.

While rhetoric does refer primarily to persuasive communication messages, much of the writing
and teaching about rhetoric conveys the importance of being an ethical rhetor, or communicator.
So when a communicator, such as a politician, speaks in misleading, vague, or dishonest ways,
he or she isn’t using rhetoric; he or she is being an unethical speaker.

The study of rhetoric focused on public communication, primarily oratory used in discussions or
debates regarding laws and policy, speeches delivered in courts, and speeches intended to praise
or blame another person. The connections among rhetoric, policy making, and legal proceedings
show that communication and citizenship have been connected since the study of communication
began. Much of the public speaking in ancient Greece took place in courtrooms or in political
contexts.

Ancient Greek rhetoricians like Aristotle were followed by Roman orators like Cicero. Cicero
contributed to the field of rhetoric by expanding theories regarding the five canons of rhetoric,
which include invention, arrangement, style, delivery, and memory. Invention refers to the
use of evidence and arguments to think about things in new ways and is the most studied of the
five canons. Arrangement refers to the organization of speech, style refers to the use of language,
and delivery refers to the vocal and physical characteristics of a speaker. Memory is the least
studied of the five canons and refers to the techniques employed by speakers of that era to retain
and then repeat large amounts of information.

The Age of Enlightenment in the 1700s marked a societal turn toward scientific discovery and
the acquisition of knowledge, which led to an explosion of philosophical and scientific writings
on many aspects of human existence. This focus on academic development continued into the
1900s and the establishment of distinct communication studies departments.

Communication studies as a distinct academic discipline with departments at universities and

colleges has only existed for a little over one hundred years. Although rhetoric has long been a
key part of higher education, and colleges and universities have long recognized the importance
of speaking, communication departments did not exist.

In the early 1900s, professors with training and expertise in communication were often housed in
rhetoric or English departments and were sometimes called “professors of speech.” During
this time, tension began to build between professors of English who studied rhetoric as the
written word and professors of speech who studied rhetoric as the spoken word.

In 1914, a group of ten speech teachers who were members of the National Council of Teachers
of English broke off from the organization and started the National Association of Academic
Teachers of Public Speaking, which eventually evolved into today’s National Communication
Association. There was also a distinction of focus and interest among professors of speech.
While some focused on the quality of ideas, arguments, and organization, others focused on
coaching the performance and delivery aspects of public speaking. Instruction in the latter
stressed the importance of “oratory” or “elocution,” and this interest in reading and speaking
aloud is sustained today in theatre and performance studies and also in oral interpretation classes,
which are still taught in many communication departments.
The formalization of speech departments led to an expanded view of the role of communication.
Even though Aristotle and other ancient rhetoricians and philosophers had theorized the
connection between rhetoric and citizenship, the role of the communicator became the focus
instead of solely focusing on the message. James A. Winans, one of the first modern speech
teachers and an advocate for teaching communication in higher education, said there were “two
motives for learning to speak. Increasing one’s chance to succeed and increasing one’s power to
serve.” Later, as social psychology began to expand in academic institutions, speech
communication scholars saw places for connection to further expand definitions of
communication to include social and psychological contexts. Today, you can find elements of all
these various aspects of communication being studied in communication departments.

EARLY MODES OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION-ANCIENT MEANS OF

COMMUNICATION
One of the earliest forms of human communication developed before the advent of spoken or
written languages. Our ancestors were extremely inventive in utilizing gestures, sounds, and
visuals to convey messages. Primitive gestures continued from our simian ancestors - pointing,
beckoning conveyed simple meanings. Facial expressions like smiling and frowning indicated
friendliness or displeasure respectively. Interestingly, smiles evolved to expose teeth as a sign of
being unarmed during social interactions. Instrumental sounds played a big role too. Drums
were commonly used - did you know Indigenous Americans communicated over distances of 10
miles through distinctive rhythms? Horns, whistles and drums summoned people or signaled
events. Signals like smoke communicated numbers and locations - Native Americans used this
ingenious method across plains through different fire patterns. Ultimately, defined oral and
written languages emerged as standard ways to efficiently convey ideas.

The history of ancient human communication can be traced back to around 30,000 BCE, when
early humans living in Ice Age Europe began marking marks and patterns on bones, ivory
and stones. These primitive markings found within the Chauvet Cave in France are considered
among the oldest known cave paintings, and provided a rudimentary means to track time and
lunar calendars.
Communication advanced over time,
with petroglyphs emerging nearly
20,000 years later between 10,000-
12,000 BCE. Unlike the earlier
paintings which depicted events,
petroglyphs found carved on rock
surfaces across locations such as
Häljesta in Sweden began telling
chronological stories through their
engraved symbol.

Around 10,000-12,000 years ago at the

end of the Upper Paleolithic period,
petroglyphs which are carvings or
engravings made on rock surfaces
emerged. Found across locations like
Häljesta in Sweden, petroglyphs went
beyond just depicting an event like
cave paintings and began telling stories
about the events through chronological
ordering, representing a more
developed form of communication.
Pictograms, graphical
representations of ideas and
concepts, emerged around 9000 BC
and laid the foundations for early
logographic scripts to develop by
5000 BC. Even more abstract
means of ideograms which
conveyed ideas rather than
resembling objects themselves
preceded ancient writing systems.
For expressing concepts like
emotions, ideograms proved to be
universal, with signs for ideas like
'sadness' being strikingly similar
across diverse ancient cultures in
different parts of the world.
Ideograms preceded logographic
writing systems as a form of proto-
writing.

Ideograms were characters

symbolizing the idea of a thing
without indicating the sound used
to say it. Examples include
numbers and Chines characters

The earliest known artifacts

featuring maps created through
bone markings date back to 14,000
BC in Mezhirich, Ukraine.
Pictograms formed the basis of
later logographic scripts like
cuneiform and hieroglyphs and
were widely used by ancient
cultures for labeling farm produce
by 6000-5000 BC.
Visuals gradually developed into
early writing systems. Through
symbols such as pictograms and
ideograms that transcended languages,
early humans found universal means to
communicate across diverse cultures,
with signs for emotions and concepts
sharing similarities across distant
regions. These evolving symbolic
forms of communication through art,
pictures and graphical
representations were crucial steps
that eventually led to the
development of early writing in
ancient civilizations. Development of
the alphabet system is an example of
communication through signs and
symbols that led to early writing in
ancient civilizations (Phoenicians,
Greeks, Romans etc)