NOTES ■ 265
also Suppies (1978). This evidence showed that learning nonsense sylla
bles did not improve a generalized aptitude for remembering. It is diffi
cult to understand why educators would have thought such results
relevant to making students stop memorizing meaningful texts.
124 The control of memory. Remembering, like dreaming, seems not to
be a process under volitional control of the self—we cannot bring into
consciousness information that refuses to be called up. But just as with
dreaming—except even more so—if one is willing to invest energy in it,
memory can be greatly improved. With a little method and discipline,
it is possible to build a whole set of mnemonic devices to help remember
material that otherwise would be forgotten. For a recent review of how
some of these methods were used in antiquity and the Renaissance, see
Spence (1984).
125 The reference to Archytas and his thought experiments is from de
Santillana (1961 [1970], p. 63).
The evolution of arithmetic and geometry. Wittfogel (1957) gives a
brilliant materialist account of the development of the sciences (as well
as political forms) on the basis of the prior development of irrigational
techniques.
That new cultural products are developed more for the sake of enjoy
ment than out of necessity is argued in Csikszentmihalyi (1988). This
seems to be true even in the introduction of such basic techniques as
the use of metals: “In several areas of the world it has been noted, in
the case of metallurgical innovation in particular, that the development
of bronze and other metals as useful commodities was a much later
phenomenon than their first utilization as new and attractive materials,
employed in contexts of display. ... In most cases early metallurgy
appears to have been practiced primarily because products have novel
properties that made them attractive to use as symbols and as personal
adornments and ornaments, in a manner that, by focusing attention,
could attract or enhance prestige” (Renfrew 1986, pp. 144, 146).
Huizinga (1939 [1970]) argued that institutions such as religion,
law, government, and the armed forces originally started as play-forms,
or games, and only gradually did they become rigid and serious. Similarly
Max Weber (1930 [1958]) pointed out that capitalism started as an
adventurous game of entrepreneurs, and only later, when its practices
became rigidified in laws and conventions, did it become an “iron cage.”
126 For the anecdotes concerning Democritus, see de Santillana (1961
[1970], pp. 142ff.)
127 For an introduction to the sagas of Iceland, see Skuli Johnson’s (1930)
collection.
