"We don't become less creative as we get older. Our creativity just gets more...

[Mole]

My cousin was illiterate, but made his own system for recording things on paper and came up with his own way of handling money also. He just did it himself out of necessity because he had some kind of problems in his brain that wouldn't let him read or count normally. It was unprecedented and nobody could teach him this, he invented it.

Creative and also practical.

Your cousin was the apparent exception that proved the rule.

And the rule is there is no creativity in traditional tribal culture, anymore than there is creativity in electronic tribal culture.

Individual creativity and genius only exist in literate, individual culture, with the apparent exception of your cousin. But if we look closer we see your cousin are a product of a culture of individuality based on literacy. Your cousin though found his own way to be literate.