Writing, Religion, and Revolt in Bahia

Abstract

The impact of writing on culture is discussed, especially the psychological consequences of literacy as a "technology of the intellect." The role played by writing is described a) in a slave revolt in nineteenth-century Brazil and, b) in a preliterate African culture (the LoDigaa) and its religious myths. Writing was a crucial factor in the planning of the revolt and writing tends to turn a religion of inheritance into a religion of conversation. But in view of the diversity of functions it served in these cultures, literacy, as an all-encompassing descriptive term, is unsatisfactory. We need to devote attention to the uses of text within a culture.