The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry by Harlan Lane, Richard C. Pillard, Ulf Hedberg
Tags: Psychology, Clinical Psychology
Ads: Link
This is true of the Deaf-World, whose central values include being Deaf and allegiance to the group. The values of ethnic groups underlie their rules of behavior in such matters as appropriate use of language and discourse, conferring names and introducing people, decision making, and pooling of resources. We found each of these behavioral repertories in the Deaf-World.
Ethnic groups have social institutions and we found many of those in examining the Deaf-World, including a network of schools, Deaf clubs, churches, athletic organizations, publishing houses and theater groups, as well as associations focused on profession, leisure, politics, and socializing.
The arts enrich the lives of ethnic groups, bind their members, and express ethnic values and knowledge. The Deaf-World has a rich literary tradition including such forms as legends and humor. There are also theater arts, and plastic arts that recount the Deaf experience.
History and ethnicity are intimately bound up in ethnic groups. The Deaf-World has a rich history that is recounted in many forms-books, films, theater, narratives, and so on. As with ethnic groups, much of that history concerns oppression and it has a familiar rhetorical structure. In the beginning, we were dispersed and isolated; but then our people gathered and built our institutions; there was a Golden Age in which we flourished, followed by the dark ages of oppression; but we rose up victorious and recovered our lost values and prestige.
Ethnic kinship practices vary widely from one ethnic group to the next. In some, kinship is based on a belief in shared ancestry. In others, kinship includes persons who clearly have no genealogical connection but only a physical or cultural resemblance, if that. What is common to various kinship practices is the diffuse enduring solidarity that each individual in the ethnic group owes to the others. Kinship in the DeafWorld is based on physical and cultural resemblance and is characterized by diffuse enduring solidarity. That is true both of members who are hereditarily Deaf and those who are not. In addition, hereditarily Deaf people, who constitute the majority of the Deaf-World, have shared ancestry as Parts II-IV illustrate with some lineages of founding Deaf families.
Socialization of ethnic children may be conducted by other than their biological parents and this, too, is a property of Deaf-World ethnicity. What may be peculiar to the Deaf-World is the commonplace delayed start of socialization, including delayed language acquisition, when parents are unable to inculcate Deaf values and language in their Deaf children.
Ethnic groups frequently have a code of conduct governing encounters with other ethnic groups. Many characteristics of the Deaf-World and of the enveloping dominant ethnicity serve to maintain the boundaries between them. To single out a few issues that sustain boundaries, there are the language barrier, radically different understandings of what it means to be a Deaf person, stigma, employment discrimination, the tendency of hearing people to take charge of Deaf affairs, endogamous marriage, the Deaf code of conduct with hearing people, and the propensity of Deaf people to look to the Deaf-World to meet many of their needs.
Finally we spoke of multilingualism and multiculturalism, properties of most ethnic groups. Deaf people are indeed multilingual and multicultural. Virtually all command at least two languages and cultures and many several more.
We conclude that the Deaf-World in the U.S. is aptly included among the nation's ethnic groups. This conclusion is based on self-ascription, bonding language and culture, societal institutions, boundary maintenance, kinship, and shared physical characteristics.31
We wish to acknowledge our presumption in offering to ASL signers a conception of their minority status and one that may seem far-fetched at that, since it reflects a paradigm change in our understanding of Deaf people. It is only in
Ethnic groups have social institutions and we found many of those in examining the Deaf-World, including a network of schools, Deaf clubs, churches, athletic organizations, publishing houses and theater groups, as well as associations focused on profession, leisure, politics, and socializing.
The arts enrich the lives of ethnic groups, bind their members, and express ethnic values and knowledge. The Deaf-World has a rich literary tradition including such forms as legends and humor. There are also theater arts, and plastic arts that recount the Deaf experience.
History and ethnicity are intimately bound up in ethnic groups. The Deaf-World has a rich history that is recounted in many forms-books, films, theater, narratives, and so on. As with ethnic groups, much of that history concerns oppression and it has a familiar rhetorical structure. In the beginning, we were dispersed and isolated; but then our people gathered and built our institutions; there was a Golden Age in which we flourished, followed by the dark ages of oppression; but we rose up victorious and recovered our lost values and prestige.
Ethnic kinship practices vary widely from one ethnic group to the next. In some, kinship is based on a belief in shared ancestry. In others, kinship includes persons who clearly have no genealogical connection but only a physical or cultural resemblance, if that. What is common to various kinship practices is the diffuse enduring solidarity that each individual in the ethnic group owes to the others. Kinship in the DeafWorld is based on physical and cultural resemblance and is characterized by diffuse enduring solidarity. That is true both of members who are hereditarily Deaf and those who are not. In addition, hereditarily Deaf people, who constitute the majority of the Deaf-World, have shared ancestry as Parts II-IV illustrate with some lineages of founding Deaf families.
Socialization of ethnic children may be conducted by other than their biological parents and this, too, is a property of Deaf-World ethnicity. What may be peculiar to the Deaf-World is the commonplace delayed start of socialization, including delayed language acquisition, when parents are unable to inculcate Deaf values and language in their Deaf children.
Ethnic groups frequently have a code of conduct governing encounters with other ethnic groups. Many characteristics of the Deaf-World and of the enveloping dominant ethnicity serve to maintain the boundaries between them. To single out a few issues that sustain boundaries, there are the language barrier, radically different understandings of what it means to be a Deaf person, stigma, employment discrimination, the tendency of hearing people to take charge of Deaf affairs, endogamous marriage, the Deaf code of conduct with hearing people, and the propensity of Deaf people to look to the Deaf-World to meet many of their needs.
Finally we spoke of multilingualism and multiculturalism, properties of most ethnic groups. Deaf people are indeed multilingual and multicultural. Virtually all command at least two languages and cultures and many several more.
We conclude that the Deaf-World in the U.S. is aptly included among the nation's ethnic groups. This conclusion is based on self-ascription, bonding language and culture, societal institutions, boundary maintenance, kinship, and shared physical characteristics.31
We wish to acknowledge our presumption in offering to ASL signers a conception of their minority status and one that may seem far-fetched at that, since it reflects a paradigm change in our understanding of Deaf people. It is only in
Similar Books
