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

Cambridge University Press, 1995. — 253 p. — (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language). — ISBN: 0-521-48087-6; ISBN: 0-521-48539-8.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.