tabular thinking

is the idea that writing, because it came to order information in downward list, allowed for cross-cutting classes, which formed rectilinear tables which made sharper dichotomies and concrete standards, and regularly repeated models for action. Oral tradition was intellectually relegated to the realm of the private, the family, the informal gathering, and the countryside.

Writing arranged recall in linear rows. Writing also ordered information in downward list and allowed for cross-cutting classes, which formed rectilinear tables. Tables affirmed the importance of making information visible. The leveling regularity of the table suggested sharper dichotomies and concrete standards, and, Goody argues, regularly repeated models for action.. . . It was easier to make local 'unconsciously enacted patterns' into mass 'overtly stated rules.' Differences between public and private, work and play, science and magic, men and women could be made clear in plain black and white. Literacy did not replace oral tradition, however. Word of mouth still thrived to provide the localism and face-to-face contact that formal writing lacked. But oral tradition was intellectually relegated to the realm of the private, the family, the informal gathering, and the countryside' (Bronner 2015: 42).

tabular thinking, n.All

tabular thinking