# How much knowledge can a non-literate society have?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-knowledge-can-a-non-literate-society-have/922721>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 11, 2020, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-knowledge-can-a-non-literate-society-have/922721 "2020-10-11T16:32:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-knowledge-can-a-non-literate-society-have/922721/4 "2020-10-11T18:12:04Z")

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Lynne Kelly, who sometimes posts here, has written books and papers about this.

I summarized what she’s saying last year:

> [@Gobekli Tepe: What do we really know?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gobekli-tepe-what-do-we-really-know/820508/180):
>
> No, this is not what Lynne Kelly is saying. My summary: Many indigenous cultures preserve surprisingly large amounts of knowledge, despite having no written language: The characteristics, and medicinal, food, and other uses of many hundreds of different species of plants and trees. (e.g the Hanunóo in the Philippines in the 19th century could name, describe, and explain 1,625 plant species.) Hundreds of animal and marine species ditto, their defining chatracteristics, habitats, behaviour, …

And here’s a TEDx talk by her:

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/k9kpJtHI8jQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Modern memory, ancient methods | Lynne Kelly | TEDxMelbourne") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9kpJtHI8jQ)

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