Hot Literacy in Cold Societies
A Comparative Study of the Sacred Value of Writing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2107833 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ronald Niezen (Harvard University Press, corresponding author), R W Niezen |
| Year | 1991 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 225-254 |
| Publication date | 1991-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0010417500017023 |
| OpenAlex | W1964984120 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 23 |
The argument that the presence or absence of widespread literacy constitutes the central criterion to distinguish 'savage' from 'domesticated' society, presented by Goody in a number of works (1968, 1977, 1986, 1987), makes close associations between alphabetic literacy and the growth of knowledge and between restricted literacy and traditional societies. In this essay, I will challenge these associations by presenting material from medieval Europe, in which the milieu of restricted literacy is creative, and from Muslim Africa, in which widespread literacy does not lead to criticism or the revision of basic religious tenets. Second, I will deal with some of the reasons for the vitality of Islamic reform in West Africa, concerning myself principally with the impact of Western education on village society and the response of reformers through the promotion of Arabic literacy. A consideration of Western education and acculturation is vital for an understanding of scriptural reformed Islam's appeal. The latter issue will emerge from the material to be presented, but I will deal exclusively with the literacy debate for the moment
Argument (complex analysis) · Criticism · Islam · Literacy · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Promotion (chess) · Social science · Sociology · Theology · Value (mathematics) · Vitality · African cultural and philosophical studies · African history and culture analysis · Education and Islamic Studies · History · Law · Philosophy
Coercion, Cognition, and Production
Language Policy and Girls’ Education in Francophone West and Central Africa
Une économie salafie de la prière dans la région du Balé en Éthiopie
Literacy and the ‘great divide’ in the Islamic world, 1300–1800
Women of the Jama'a Ansar al-Sunna
Local Reformers and the Search for Change
The interface between the written and the oral
The Wahhabiyya; Islamic reform and politics in French West Africa.
Literary language & its public in late Latin antiquity and in the Middle Ages
Islam in West Africa.
The Psychology of Literacy
The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society
Literacy in Traditional Societies
Literacy in Theory and Practice
Reason and Morality
The Later Lollards, 1414-1520
Islam and Social Order in Mauritania
People of the Zongo
Lollardy and Sedition 1381-1431
The Lollard Bible
The Savage Mind
The 'Community of Helpers of the Sunna
The Politics of Quranic Education among Muslim Traders in the Western Sudan
The Art of Memory
The Consequences of Literacy
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,19 |
| Citation span | 1994 - 2018 (25) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |