Rural villages in the developing world are oral cultures; that is cultures in which the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most people.
A village bank in Cambodia
When we work in a poor village, we often see it through the negative lens of illiteracy and innumeracy rather than through the more relevant lens of oral culture. In the words of Walter J. Ong, the dean of oral studies, this is a bit like attempting to describe a society dominated by the horse and buggy (a transportation technology that preceded the automobile) by visualizing villages filled with automobiles that have four legs instead of wheels, that eat hay instead of burning gas, that have a harness instead of a steering wheel, etc. (Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word, Routledge, Francis & Taylor Group, London & New York, 2002).
This confused logic can shed little light on the needs of oral microfinance clients. It is particularly problematic where the greatest understanding is needed: the domain of voluntary savings and resource pooling.
villagefinance 
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