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Literacy and the Notion of Person on Nukulaelae Atoll
Author(s) -
BESNIER NIKO
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1991.93.3.02a00020
Subject(s) - atoll , literacy , context (archaeology) , first person , authoritarianism , sociology , psychology , social psychology , linguistics , gender studies , history , psychoanalysis , politics , pedagogy , philosophy , political science , law , archaeology , ecology , reef , democracy , biology
Written discourse produced on Nukulaelae atoll of Western Polynesia falls principally in two categories: personal letters and religious sermons. Personal‐letter writing is a highly affective communicative context, in which the vulnerable aspects of the person are highlighted. Sermons, in contrast, elaborate authoritarianism and directness. The divergent characteristics of Nukulaelae literacy practices are best understood in terms of their relationship to contexts of use, particularly to the notion of person articulated through them.