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Cited by 232Anthropological Studies and InsightsNew Caledonia Indigenous StudiesMedia, Communication, and Education

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

Besnier, Niko·1995·Cambridge University Press eBooks
DOI 10.1017/cbo9780511519864
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Abstract

Literacy continues to be a central issue in anthropology, but methods of perceiving and examining it have changed in recent years. In this 1995 study Niko Besnier analyses the transformation of Nukulaelae from a non-literate into a literate society using a contemporary perspective which emphasizes literacy as a social practice embedded in a socio-cultural context. He shows how a small and isolated Polynesian community, with no access to print technology, can become deeply steeped in literacy in little more than a century, and how literacy can take on radically divergent forms depending on the social and cultural needs and characteristics of the society in which it develops. 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.

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Crossref · 10.1017/cbo9780511519864

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  • The pawnshop emerges as a central nexus in Tonga's 'economy of affect', in which shame operates in different, sometimes contradictory, sometimes complementary, ways.

    “The pawnshop thus emerges as a central nexus in Tonga's 'economy of affect' (Besnier 1995 : 99 ), in which shame operates in different, sometimes contradictory, sometimes complementary, ways.”

    From When gifts become commodities: pawnshops, valuables, and shame in Tonga and the Tongan diaspora (2008) · cites this paper as Besnier 1995

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Authors
Besnier, N.
Affiliations
University of Amsterdam (NL)
Corresponding author
Besnier, Niko
ORCID
Besnier, Niko
Venue
Cambridge University Press eBooks
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Published
1995-08-24
DOI
10.1017/cbo9780511519864
OpenAlex
W998167931
Cited by
232
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 4
FWCI
17.37
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 5104 d)
Locations
Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › New Caledonia Indigenous Studies
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Media, Communication, and Education
Keywords
literacy, Polynesian society, social practices, emotions, authority, structure and agency, norm and practice, individual and group, printing technology, social change

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