Most deaf people have to use ASL because they cannot master English, a language that requires thorough understanding of phonetics. To say ASL is "beautiful" smacks of arrogance. Might as well be French and claim French is beautiful.
The majority of deaf people signing ASL will never master English. It is indeed a last resort language.
There's no deaf cuisine, there is no deaf costume, there is no deaf religion, there is no deaf furniture, so who are we to say there is a deaf " culture?Would this be arrogance, too? Or maybe this person knows a thing or two and is correct in his observation that there is no such thing as a "Deaf culture"? This person can easily pass as a "Deaf person" and he can make mince meat out of your own arguments if he wanted to.
Now, here's a mysterious person who called him/herself as a "sighted Deaf person" submitted a 2008 article for Deafread "There is no such blind culture" in a rebuttal attempt to my blog, "Deaf culture? Yes. Blind culture? No. Arrogance?" One problem though, there is nothing to rebut in the first place.
Had this mysterious person understood where my article was going he would've understood that my point was from the point of view of a blind person. In short, who are you or anybody else to say that there is no such thing as blind culture if a blind person believes there is one? Even if another blind person says there is no such thing as a "blind culture" it doesn't negate what other blind people believing that they have a thriving blind culture of their own. Just as this deaf guy said "so who are we to say there is a deaf culture?" This is exactly what I was getting at in my other recent blog, who are we to say there is no such thing as a blind culture? Would it be arrogant for a Deaf person to deny a group of blind people their reasonings that there is a blind culture? Or would this simply be a case of lack of education or not fully informed? Or perhaps it's true there is no such thing as a blind culture. Just as it could be true that there is no such thing as a Deaf culture according to one deaf guy.
Before ya'll get hot under the collar, re-read what I'm trying to say before you start saying something stupid.
12 comments:
Just accept there there is a deaf culture. It's real to us.
Also, If a blind person want to say blind community exist, so be it. But they are still part of English speaking culture. I know that dwarves have their own community as well.
The word culture has many definitions. There is 'culture' as defined by anthropologists, where there may be a separate language or dialect, a way of dressing, cooking, special holiday celebrations, a separate history, distinctive art or music, and so on.
And then there are sub-cultures-- such as the Christian culture, youth culture. GLBT culture. Some big companies are referred to as having a certain 'culture'. There is even Soccer Mom culture. In these "cultures" people may have a distinctive way of behaving and may share specific lingo only meaningful to their sub-group. They can have a shared history. They might celebrate certain days or 'heroes' no one else cares about. But anthropologists wouldn't classify them as a separate culture because they meet only some of the criteria.
It's kind of hard trying to figure out who has their own 'culture' and who doesn't if we haven't determined which definition of culture we're referring to.
I agree that it's probably up to the group to decide if they have a culture, since they know more about what they do than anyone else.
Kim
Kim
Must be interesting hmm.. He sort of have valid point thinking there is no Deaf Culture but, Culture itself is complicate to Identify. Same goes for Religion.. Just because Deaf person say there is no deaf culture, it does not mean there is no deaf culture. The only reason there is no blind culture (from my perspective, there could be one) is because they have no unique language to communicate among themselves. Braille is the way to read not communicate. Deaf is probably the most unique disability because they have their own culture.. Like someone on post say, culture consist LANGUAGE.. I think Language is the key to whether there is culture or not..
Whether or not there is a deaf culture is often times in the eye of the beholder. This chart here, is something to think about. Have posted it on my deaf culture discussion post a while back.
http://www.deafculture.com/ethnic_culture/
Culture like beauty seems to be in the eyes of the beholder. Mostly culture is bandied about because of constant internal struggles of identity. Culture then justifies deafness in a world where deafness is seen as anything but, and seen as an issue to be addressed, and because perception of language is different, to me they are tools to be used as and when, to others it is what sets them apart from everyone else. Unfortunately the message 'all deaf people use sign language, and ergo, so are all cultural' causes huge differences of opinion. Not least because there is no basis of truth in that. Culture is used as a blunt tool and that is the issue.
All unique and distinct langtuages have a unique and distinct culture.
Folks have known for centuries that if you want to destroy a culture, you destroy the language. This is why invaders often ban the native language.
Furniture??? Cruisine??? Costumes?? Culture can be made up of various things and it just so happens that Deaf Culture doesn't involve those things. Simply put, different cultures are different.
Sad to say, your friend is ignorant and arrogant. ASL isn't inferior to English and many of the deaf who are native fluent in ASL have a good command of English.
Candy,
That's a good link. I have seen it before. One thing the author left out, which is usually included by anthropologists when evaluating a culture is distinct art/music/dance. Deaf culture definitely promotes its own form of unique artistic expression.
The other thing the author did, which I don't agree with, is he included distinct history with 'scriptural history and traditions' I would argue many cultures have a distinct history separate from religion. 'History' should be in a separate category rather than lumped with scriptural history.
I vaguely remembered from college that there were seven elements to culture and that five must be met for anthropologists to classify a culture as separate and distinct. I googled this, and found they are--
1. Social Organization
2. Customs & Traditions
3. Language
4. Arts & Literature
5. Religion
6. Government
7. Economic System
By this list Deaf culture meets four out of seven. BUT-- after googling around some more I came to realize that anthropology professors don't seem to agree at all on how many elements of culture there are, or even which elements are important.
Some put more weight on language and beliefs than others. So I guess we're back to square one.
Language and religion are definitely huge. While we can't say that Deaf people have their own separate religion, their fervent belief in the Deafhood experience almost seems like a religion sometimes.
I think it's strange that the author of the article you sent didn't take ownership by including his name and educational background.
Kim
Kim..
yes, I concur, no ownership noted there. When I saw that chart, It gave me a good comparison even tho there are some elements missing/don't belong. This chart just gives us a basic idea and is not necessarily absolute. I have felt that perhaps culturally deaf do have some sort of a culture but not necessarily an ethnic culture. That is why "deaf culture" can easily be argued and challenged, imo. If one sees that deaf culture is a culture, then it is, for that person.
Deaf people's fervent belief in Deafhood? Please. Only 1% (of which 50% comes from Fremont, apparently) is involved.
@ Ben--
Sorry-- didn't mean to over generalize. LOL It was half sarcasm anyway. I should have added the qualifier "in the blogosphere" Judging by v/blog posts (and comments) it seems like there's this strong fanatical, almost religious-like movement of Paddy Ladd worshippers who spout passages from his book like it's the Holy Bible of Deaf existence. So when people like Mike here ask questions, such as "is there a Deaf culture," there is a tendency among those "few" to over react, and sometimes they accuse him (and others) of not being Deaf since he doesn't seem to believe the right thing.
Being Deaf isn't about what you believe. It's about what you hear-- or don't hear-- and how you communicate.
Being Deaf isn't a religion, so belief in Deafhood or Paddy Ladd or even Deaf culture shouldn't be a requirement.
Kim,
In reference to your comments below:
Being Deaf isn't about what you believe. It's about what you hear-- or don't hear-- and how you communicate.
Being Deaf isn't a religion, so belief in Deafhood or Paddy Ladd or even Deaf culture shouldn't be a requirement.
It's always been my sense, and also from reviewing the literature, that being Deaf is related to someone who believes in and uses ASL as well in participation in the Deaf world. It requires an acceptance of the mores of Deaf Culture.
It's also been my feeling that I couldn't call myself Deaf unless I was accepted as such by the Deaf Community. Not to mean I can't just consider and call myself such, but that's like calling myself a dog. Because I do doesn't make it so.
I'm just saying this is what I've learned thus far in my life.
JustDeafOne@gmail.com
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