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The Cultural Level of Unlettered Folk
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
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It is often taken for granted that people who are predominantly unlettered inevitably have a low cultural level. The frequently used word “illiterate” does not merely signify inability to read and write but also implies a general lack of knowledge and culture. Indeed, some of the standard dictionaries mention “ignorant” as one of the meanings of the word illiterate. It is common for people belonging to modern industrial societies to look down upon the unlettered folk as uncivilized and incapable of finer intellectual and aesthetic sensibilities.
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- Copyright © 1977 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
1 Dictionary of World Literary Terms, ed. by Joseph T. Shipley, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1970, p. 178.
2 Plato, Phaedrus, 273-78. Cf. A.E. Taylor, Plato: The Man and His Work, London, Methuen (University Paperbacks), 1966, pp. 816-17.
3 Cited in Smrtichandrikā, I, p. 52 quoted by K.V. Rangaswami Aiyangar, Brhaspatismrti, Baroda, Oriental Institute, 1951, p. 77.
4 For a discussion of the value and problems of the analysis of oral tradition, see my "Oral Tradition and the Study of Peasant Society," Diogenes, no. 85 (1974) pp. 112-27.
5 Cf. Robert Redfield, Little Community and Peasant Society and Culture, Chicago, University Press, 1963 (Third impression), p. 40 ff.
6 In the Hindi language the word for love, "prem," has one and a half letters.
7 Like other characteristics of heroic poetry this feature too is not confined to India. It is widely shared by heroic poetry of various peoples of central Asia and medieval and ancient Europe. Cf. C.M. Bowra, Heroic Poetry, London, Macmillan & Co., 1952.
8 Robert Redfield, op. cit., p. 41.
9 T.F. Henderson, The Ballad in Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1912, p. 95 et passim.
10 Ibid., pp. 71 and 96.
11 Criticizing Professor Kittredge's description of ballad composition, Hen derson remarks: "One might almost suppose that Professor Kittredge has seen the ballad factories of the ancient village communities in full operation" (op. cit., p. 75). The use of the phrase "ballad factories" is obviously unfortunate but in vigorous folk society we even now have an opportunity to observe how songs, ballads and other pieces come into being and undergo change.
12 D.P. Mukerji, Indian Music, Poona, Kutub Publishers, pp. 9, 12.
13 Though the modern technological and economic forces have undoubtedly brought about a radical change in the relationship between villages and towns, it is not correct to think that they were unconnected in pre-modern times. The study of the change in the nature of this relationship can tell us a good deal about recent social change in peasant civilizations. Cf. my "The Changing Pattern of Rural Society and Culture: Significance of the Rural-Urban Nexus", in Trends of Socio-economic Change in India, Simla, Institute of Advanced Study, 1969, pp. 162-75.
14 McKim Marriot, "Little Communities in an Indigenous Civilization," Village India: Studies in the Little Community, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1955, pp. 171-222.
15 Marriot, "Cultural Policy in the New States," Old Societies and New States, (ed. Clifford Geertz), The Free Press of Glencoe, 1963, pp. 27-56.
16 Margaret Mead, And Keep Your Powder Dry, New York, Morrow, 1942, p. 82.
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