What role do the "great traditions" and "small traditions" play in creating cultural unity, and how were these present in sub-Saharan Africa?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
The great traditions are generally a more elite form of culture that includes written language, legal and belief systems, and intellectual traditions; these are predominantly found in literate, sedentary, and complex, established cultures with large infrastructures that can provide commonalities. By contrast, small traditions are more localized, tend to be found in nomadic, nonsedentary, or preliterature cultures, and are studied by anthropologists or through oral history; hence changes in them are harder to track. Sub-Sarahan Africa is a large area and had a lower population density than other areas of the world, and so tracking cultural unity is significantly harder because communities were isolated from one another and did not have shared traditions. Only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries did European travelers become more familiar with sub-Saharan Africa and attempt to trace the similarities between diverse cultures. These included primarily small traditions such as agricultural techniques, the use of music in rituals, and social organization.