Information Behavior in Pre-literate Societies

This chapter arose from an exchange of ideas between a former life scientist, a former archaeologist, and a member of the Kope tribe, a remote tribe in Papua New Guinea. All three now work in fields related to information sciences. It discusses how notions of information have been dominated by text-based information sources, and considers how one group of people (the Kope) managed information in the absence of any awareness of text. The study explores how the Kopi relate to information, how they use it, and where they get it from. It summarises the findings as six information roles. These are related to contemporary situations.

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