The logic of writing and the organization of society

Studies in Literacy, Family, Culture and the State: an introduction --
The word of God --
The concept of 'a'/'the' religion --
Boundaries --
Change --
Obsolescence --
Incorporation or conversion --
Universalism and particularism --
Cognitive contradictions in the general and the specific --
Specialization: priests and intellectuals --
Endowment and alienation --
The twin bureaucracies --
Organizational and structural autonomony --
The Great and Little Traditions: spirit cults and world religions --
Writing and religion in Ancient Egypt --
Writing and religion in other early civilizations --
Ritual and writing --
The word of mammon --
The origin of writing and the ancient economy --
Writing and the temple economy --
Writing and the palace economy --
Writing and the mercantile economy --
Writing and individual transactions --
Writing and the economy in Africa --
The state, the bureau and the file --
Bureaucracies --
The administration of early states with writing --
Internal administration --
External administration --
The administration of states without writing --
External administration --
Internal administration --
Writing in the colonial and national administrations --
Writing and the political process --
The letter of the law --
The definition of law --
Courts, constables and codes --
Sources of law and changes of rule --
Legal reasoning --
Court organization --
Legal forms --
The expansion of writing and law in medieval England --
The letter and the spirit of the law --
Ruptures and continuities.