I’d argue that in most societies that have existed, there is at least a caste or class that value and put their resources towards a form of intellectualism. How

I’d argue that in most societies that have existed, there is at least a caste or class that value and put their resources towards a form of intellectualism. How you measure its degree of new idea / innovative thought production or some such other intellectual endeavors realization, is really difficult, for example you could consider a religious leader position that shares moral or meaningful stories even if just historical stories, is someone in the society who inspires intellectualism if only for provoking the intellect to think about another perspective than their own.