preliterate
- s not yet having acquired the ability to read and write
- s used of a society that has not developed writing
- In a preliterate world, there's no distinction between children and adults.
- The land was populated largely by preliterate farmers, living in small communities, who supported themselves with mixed agriculture and hunting.
- The "seamless" and communal thought processes of tribal, preliterate man were fragmented; perception itself took on the rigid, abecedarian character of writing.