literacy
literacyThe number of people who could read and write in the ancient world is hard to determine. Without statistical evidence, we must rely mostly on chance information and inference: for example, the institution of ostracism implies that most Athenian citizens could be expected to write a name. Our evidence (written) indicates the literate, not the illiterate, and especially the highly educated élite. The ancient habit of reading aloud meant that written texts could often be shared the more easily by others; the presence of inscriptions does not itself imply that they were read by everyone, since their symbolic value added another dimension to their written contents. There are also many different levels of literacy, which complicate the picture, from the basic ability to figure out a short message, to functional literacy or ‘craft literacy’, to the skill required for reading a literary papyrus (reading and writing skills may also...
[The entire page is 615 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
