Literacy, Emotion and Authority: Reading and Writing on a Polynesian Atoll

ISBN-13: 9780521480871 / Angielski / Twarda / 1995 / 256 str.

Niko Besnier

Opis

In this study Niko Besnier analyzes the transformation of the Polynesian community of Nukulaelae from a nonliterate into a literate society, using a contemporary perspective that emphasizes literacy as a social practice embedded in a socio-cultural context. His case study, which has implications for understanding literacy in other societies, illuminates the relationship between norm and practice, between structure and agency, and between group and individual.

Recenzje

"Niko Besnier's Literacy, emotion and authority is abrilliant and painstaking ethnographic study of literacy on Nukulaelae Atoll, Tuvalu (formerly Ellice Islands)....Niko Besnier has produced a probing and exceedingly useful study of the highest caliber." Kenneth M. George, Cultural Survival Quarterly

Spis treści

1. Introduction; 2. The ethnographic context; 3. The domains of reading and writing; 4. Letter writing and reading; 5. Letters, economics and emotionality; 6. Between literacy and orality: the sermon; 7. Literacy, truth and authority; 8. Conclusion.