An individual person can learn to read before they learn to write, and that’s almost always the case. But the very, very first person to ever do either of those things wrote before he read.
The very first person to write was doing so with the intent of it being read. They didn’t make marks that they didn’t understand and then later discover their meaning. Writing makes no sense without reading. These two things happened in unison, one does not predate the other.
An individual person can learn to read before they learn to write, and that’s almost always the case. But the very, very first person to ever do either of those things wrote before he read.
The very first person to write was doing so with the intent of it being read. They didn’t make marks that they didn’t understand and then later discover their meaning. Writing makes no sense without reading. These two things happened in unison, one does not predate the other.
I wasn’t taking about an individual, I was talking about humans as a species and culture.