preliterate
Lacking written language
Preliterate describes a culture or society that has not yet developed a writing system, relying instead on oral tradition for transmitting knowledge and history: preliterate peoples passed down stories through generations of storytelling.
The term also applies to children who haven't yet learned to read: preliterate skills like recognizing letters.
Unlike illiterate, preliterate implies writing simply isn't available rather than that someone failed to learn it.
Of a clan
- kinshipState of being related
- clanRelated group sharing ancestry
- bandGroup playing music together
- communalShared by a community
hunter-gatherer · nomadic · foraging · subsistence · barter · matriarchy · patriarchy · rites-of-passage
Recounting events aloud
- folkloreInherited cultural narratives
- oral-historyRecorded firsthand accounts
- griotAfrican oral tradition keeper
- bardPoet of epics
recitation · epics · saga · ballads · fables · proverbs · narration · tradition
Making something exist
- cosmogonyStudy of universal origins
- deitiesWorshipped supernatural beings
- pantheonAll gods of a religion
- ancestorsThose from whom one descends
totems · myths · legends · gods · goddesses · heroes · monsters · sacred
Human-made historical objects
- excavationAct of unearthing
- petroglyphsCarvings on natural stone
- cave-paintingsAncient images on cavern walls
- pictographsSymbols depicting concepts visually
fossils · ruins · stratigraphy · carbon-dating · potsherd · ceramics · paleoanthropology · tomb
tribal
Of a clan
communal · hunter-gatherer · nomadic · foraging · subsistence · barter · matriarchy · patriarchy · rites-of-passage · initiation
storytelling
Recounting events aloud
- folkloreInherited cultural narratives
- oral-historyRecorded firsthand accounts
- griotAfrican oral tradition keeper
bard · recitation · epics · saga · ballads · fables · proverbs · narration · tradition · minstrel
creation
Making something exist
- cosmogonyStudy of universal origins
- deitiesWorshipped supernatural beings
- pantheonAll gods of a religion
ancestors · totems · myths · legends · gods · goddesses · heroes · monsters · sacred · rituals
artifacts
Human-made historical objects
- excavationAct of unearthing
- petroglyphsCarvings on natural stone
- cave-paintingsAncient images on cavern walls
pictographs · fossils · ruins · stratigraphy · carbon-dating · potsherd · ceramics · paleoanthropology · tomb · ochre
- reading skillsvocabulary, decoding, grammar, fluency, comprehension
- reading levelsreader, fluent reader, advanced reader, struggling reader, proficient
preliterateliterate
Able to read
literary · lettered · text-based · written · alphabetic