Book excerpt: Cross-Cultural Approaches to Literacy, investigates the meanings and uses of literacy in different cultures and societies. In contrast to previous studies, where the focus of research has been on aspects of cognition, education and on the economic 'consequences' of literacy, these largely ethnographic essays bring together anthropological and linguistic work written over the last ten years. Accounts of literacy practices in a variety of locations, including Great Britain, the United States, Africa, the South Pacific and Madagascar, illustrate how these practices vary from one context to another, and challenge the traditional view that literacy is a single, uniform skill, essential to functioning in a modern society.