Message sticks: Reconstructing a long-distance communication system in Indigenous Australia

文字是人类历史上一项具有决定性意义的发明。我们发现语言可以通过可见的标记来表示，这一发现开辟了非凡的新可能性，从信息存储到远距离通信以及计算机代码等现代应用。然而，书写绝不是我们唯一可用的图形交流方式，还有一系列令人惊讶的符号代码既早于书写，又与书写共存，在每一个大陆上，小规模社会都设计出了非语言符号系统，这些符号系统有着各种各样的应用，比如记账、促进仪式背诵或帮助说话者回忆口头信息。到目前为止，这些信息技术的重要性和它们在人类交流中所扮演的角色已经被书写的全球主导地位所掩盖，澳大利亚土著人使用的信息棒代表了一个丰富但未得到充分研究的在“无文字”环境中进行图形交流的例子。在这一传统中，信使会长途跋涉，借助雕刻的木棍传递信息。这些棍子上刻有一系列的图案，旨在补充口头产生的信息，如邀请，宣战或死亡的消息。当留言棒在19世纪末成为人类学关注的主题时，这种做法已经在非洲大陆的大部分地区发生了急剧的转变，有关其完整范围和功能的许多问题仍然没有得到解答。我的研究将解决以下核心问题：澳大利亚留言棒的历史、功能和意义是什么？为此，我将运用一系列的方法，从历史民族志和语言人类学来重建的信息棒通信的做法，借鉴原始的实地考察，在世界各地的博物馆保存的1000多件文物，和幸存的评论他们以前的使用。对这些数据的分析将被用来面对五个重要的和相互关联的知识差距的消息棒：1。他们作为澳大利亚物质文化的一个类别的地位; 2。它们的起源、扩散和变异; 3.它们的功能、规约和语用; 4.他们的后接触文化史（1788年至今）;和5。它们与其他图形通信系统的关系。从所有的通信系统的前提下，他们的用户的变化的需求和利益的反应，由此产生的研究将寻求相对化的框架和话语周围的图形代码，假设基于语言的写作作为一个默认的类型学比较。此外，信息棒系统将被历史化，成为一种不断适应和变化的动态实践。这是第一次，澳大利亚的信息棒将位于其最相关的文化和语言背景下，并在综合数据集的帮助下进行解释。

Writing is a defining invention in the history of humanity. Our discovery that language could be represented by means of visible marks opened up extraordinary new possibilities, from information storage to long-distance correspondence and modern applications such as computer code. Yet writing is by no means the only method of graphic communication available to us, and a surprising range of symbolic codes have both pre-dated and coexisted with it. On every continent, small-scale societies have devised non-linguistic sign systems with a variety of applications, such as keeping accounts, facilitating ritual recitations or aiding speakers in recalling oral messages. To date, the importance of these information technologies and the role they play in human communication has been overshadowed by the global dominance of writing.The use of message sticks in Indigenous Australia represents a rich but understudied example of graphic communication in a ‘non-literate’ setting. Within this tradition, messengers would travel vast distances to deliver information with the aid of carved wooden sticks. Engraved with sequences of motifs, the sticks were designed to complement a verbally produced message such as an invitation, a declaration of war, or news of a death. By the time message sticks became a subject of anthropological interest in the late 19th century, the practice was already in steep transition over most of the continent, and many questions concerning their full scope and function remain unanswered.My study will address the following core question: What is the history, function and significance of Australian message sticks? To this end I will apply a range of methods from historical ethnography and linguistic anthropology to reconstruct the practice of message stick communication, drawing on original fieldwork, over 1000 conserved artefacts in museums worldwide, and surviving commentaries on their former use. The analysis of this data will be used to confront five significant and interrelated knowledge gaps about message sticks: 1. their status as a category of Australian material culture; 2. their origin, diffusion and variation; 3. their functions, conventions and pragmatics; 4. their post-contact cultural history (1788–present); and 5. their relationship to other systems of graphic communication. Proceeding from the premise that all systems of communication are responses to the variable needs and interests of their users, the resulting study will seek to relativise frameworks and discourses around graphic codes that have assumed language-based writing as a default typological comparator. Moreover, the message stick system will be historicised as a dynamic practice that continues to adapt and change. For the first time, Australian message sticks will be situated in their most relevant cultural and linguistic contexts, and interpreted with the aid of a comprehensive dataset.