Brian Street's volume investigates the meanings and uses of literacy in different cultures and societies, challenging the traditional view that literacy is a single, uniform skill, essential to functioning in a modern society.

Introduction: the new literacy studies Brian Street; Part I. The Incorporation of Literacy Into The Communicative Repertoire: l. Conceptions and uses of literacy in a Papua New Guinean village Don Kulick and Christopher Stroud; 2. Literacy and feelings: the encoding of affect in Nukulaelae letters Niko Besnier; 3. The uses of schooling and literacy in a Zafimaniny village Maurice Bloch; 4. Arabic literacy and enlightenment among the Mende of Sierra Leone Caroline Bledsoe and Kenneth M. Robey; Part II. Local Literacies and National Politics: Ethnicity, Gender and Religion: 5. Literacy and cultural identity in the Horn of Africa: the Somali case I. M. Lewis; 6. Gender, language and the politics of literacy Kathleen Rockhill; 7. Literacy, development and ethnicity: an Alaskan example Stephen Reder and Karen Reed Wikelund; 8. The letter and the spirit: literacy and religious authority in the history of the Aladura movement in western Nigeria Peter Probst; Part III. Literacy Variation in Urban Settings: 9. Vernacular writing: varieties of literacy among Philadelphia high school students Miriam Camitta; l0. Collaborative writing; appropriating power or reproducing authority? Amy Shuman; ll. Literacy and social process: a community in transition Gail Weinstein-Shr; l2. Mediators of literacy and community interpreters Mike Baynam.