The Orality-Literacy Continuum

The Orality-Literacy Continuum describes how cultures and societies process and transmit information. On one end, "orality" emphasizes spoken words, storytelling, and memory, typical of societies without writing systems. On the other end, "literacy" involves reading and writing, enabling complex, stored, and transmitted knowledge through text. Most cultures fall along a spectrum between these extremes, with some using primarily spoken communication and others relying heavily on written records. This continuum helps us understand how different societies develop communication methods and how these methods influence social structures, culture, and the way knowledge is preserved and shared.