ABSTRACT
While the revolutions destroyed the communal elements in the Northeast’s culture, their concomitant effects destroyed its oral character. During the transitional period rural society moved from a state of general nonliteracy to a state of general literacy. Obviously we are dealing here not with absolutes but relative proportions of society, which is just as well, for there still exists considerable variation in ideas on what is meant by literacy and how it should be measured. 1 By literacy I mean—and this is not so simpleminded as it sounds—the ability both to read and to write.
