The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry (13 page)

There is a pluralistic vision for America, in which each ethnicity contributes to the nation with some fusing and some intermingling.58 Fishman, querying activists in three ethnic groups found that they had a strong desire to maintain their ethnicity alongside their Americanism.59

According to Deaf scholars, this is what the Deaf-World, too, is seeking-integration with a measure of autonomy. And that is not at all peculiar to the Deaf. Integration with autonomy is characteristic of many ethnic groups who participate both "in intimate networks of familiar ethnie [ethnicity] and the broad open but impersonal ties of citizenship in the state and its public community and the professional world of work."60 Psychologist John Edwards calls integration with autonomy "modified pluralism"-allowing both participation in mainstream society and maintenance of group cohesion.61 It is mistaken to think that the route to successful participation is the denial of self. BahanD speaks of a "safe harbor" where Deaf people can anchor their connections to one another after traveling on the high seas with the rest of humanity.62 Historian Joseph MurrayD explains that the Deaf have traditionally expected both to participate in a society not tailored to Deaf norms and to have a separate space of being Deaf; he calls the joint expectation co-equality. HumphriesD has expressed it as follows:

Deaf people have a vision of integration that is different from what hearing people envision for them. Deaf people see grounding in the culture and signed language of the deaf community in which they live as the most important factor in their lives. Integration comes more easily and more effectively from these roots.63

In the following sections (Parts II-V) we examine the rise of American Deaf ethnicity from Deaf ancestry in New England. When the full story of American Deaf ethnicity is told, it will include other regions of the United States and other immigrant groups. Although the diffuse enduring solidarity of the Deaf-World can be read as ethnic kinship, as we explained earlier, in the view of many ethnologists shared ancestry is the litmus test for ethnicity. We present evidence of shared ancestry that also describes Deaf lives in early America and throws light on the formation of Deaf clans through Deaf intermarriage. Part II describes two prominent Deaf enclaves, those located in southeastern New Hampshire and on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. A contrast between those two Deaf communities reveals differences in ethnic boundaries that we trace to differences in the genetic transmission of the Deaf trait.

Notes

Part I

1 A. D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).

2 S. Fenton, Ethnicity, Key Concepts (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2003). "There are no ethnic minorities without an ethnic majority" (quotation from p. 165). J. R. Edwards, Language, Society, and Identity (New York: Blackwell, 1985): "All people are members of some ethnic group but dominant groups rarely define themselves as ethnic" (quotation from p. 6); "Ethnic identity does not mean minority identity-we are all ethnics" (quotation from p. 45); T. H. Eriksen, "Ethnicity, Race, Class and Nation," in J. Hutchinson and A. D. Smith, eds., Ethnicity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996): "Majorities and dominant people are no less ethnic than minorities" (quotation from p. 28). J. A. Fishman, The Rise and Fall of the Ethnic Revival: Perspectives On Language and Ethnicity (New York: Mouton, 1985): "Perhaps when the mainstream will recognize its ethnicity, it will be less likely to view ethnicity as equivalent to either marginality or provincial uncouthness in others" (quotation from p. 37). M. Verkuyten, The Social Psychology of Ethnic Identity (Hove, U.K.; New York: Psychology Press, 2005): "The term ethnicity also applies to the identity of the majority" (p. 76).

3 (f. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures New York: Basic Books, 1973).

A. D. Smith, The Ethnic Revival (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1981). For a discussion of primordialism, see: Fenton, Ethnicity; J. A. Fishman, Language and Ethnicity in Minority Sociolinguistic Perspective (Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters, 1989); J. A. Fishman, Rise and Fall; Hutchinson and Smith, Ethnicity; R. Jenkins, Rethinking Ethnicity: Arguments and Explorations (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1997); A. D. Smith, Ethnic Origins. There is only partial agreement among scholars on how to define ethnicity, to enumerate its traits, or to assign relative importance to each of them.

Chapter 1

D. Horowitz, "Symbolic Politics and Ethnic Status," in Hutchinson and Smith, Ethnicity, 285-291; S. Rutherford, "The Culture of American Deaf People," Sign Language Studies 59 (1988): 129-147; "Since language is the prime symbol system to begin with and since it is commonly relied upon ... to enact and call forth all ethnic activity, the likelihood that it will be recognized and singled out as symbolic of ethnicity is great indeed." J. A Fishman, "Language and Ethnicity," in H. Giles, ed., Language, ethnicity and intergroup relations. (New York: Academic Press, 1977); quotation from p. 15.

2 B. Bahan, "Comment on Turner," Sign Language Studies 84 (1994): 241-249. By convention, English glosses on ASL signs are written in capital letters. However, for readability we adopt Deaf-World and Deaf to refer to the language minority and its members, respectively. For an early published use of the terms Deaf and Deaf-World see C. Padden, "The Culture of Deaf People," in C. Baker and R. Battison, eds., Sign Language and the Deaf Community: Essays in Honor of William Stokoe (Silver Spring, Md.: National Association of the Deaf, 1980).

3 S. Fischer and H. van der Hulst, "Sign Language Structures," in M. Marschark, ed., Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education. (Cary, N.C.: Oxford University Press, 2003), 319-331; C. Valli and C. Lucas, Linguistics of American Sign Language (2nd ed.) (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 1995).

4 K. Emmorey and H. Lane, The Signs of Language Revisited (Mahwah, N.J.: LEA, 2000); 0. Sacks, Seeing Voices (Los Angeles, Calif.: Univ. California Press, 1989); H. Poizner, U. Bellugi, and E. S. Klima, "Biological Foundations of Language: Clues From Sign Language," Annual Reviews of Neuroscience 13 (1990): 283-307.

5 B. Bahan, "Memoir Upon the Formation of a Visual Variety of the Human Race," in B. K. Eldredge, D. Stringham, and M. Wilding-Diaz, eds., Deaf Studies Today (Orem, Utah: Utah Valley State College, 2005), 17-35.

6 H. Lane, R. Hoffmeister, and B. Bahan, A Journey into the Deaf-World (San Diego, Calif.: DawnSignPress, 1996).

7 E. Newport, "Maturational Constraints on Language Learning," Cognitive Science 14 (1990): 11-28.

8 MJ. Bienvenu and B. Colonomos, An Introduction to American Deaf Culture: Social Interaction Workbook (Burtonsville, Md.: Sign Media, 1985).

9 C. Padden, "The Deaf Community and the Culture of Deaf People," in S.Wilcox, ed., American Deaf Culture (Burtonsville, Md.: Linstok Press, 1989), 1-16.

10 Ibid.

11 B. Kannapell, "Inside the Deaf Community," in Wilcox, American Deaf Culture, 21-28; quotation from p. 27.

12 J. D. Schein, At Home Among Strangers (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 1989), quotation from p. 39.

13 Native American Languages Act 1990, PL 101-477.

14 Kannapell, "Deaf Community," quotation from pp. 22, 25.

15 Fishman, Rise and Fall.

16 H. Kloss, "Bilingualism and Nationalism," Journal of Social Issues 23 (1967): 39-47; quotation from p. 46.

17 W. B. Gudykunst, Language and Ethnic Identity (Philadelphia, Pa.: Multilingual Matters, 1988).

18 L. Clerc (1785-1869) also apparently brought la Langue des Signes Francaise (LSF). He cofounded the Hartford school with T. H. Gallaudet (1787-1851).

19 H. Lane, When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf (New York: Random House, 1984). It has not been established that there was in Clerc's time, a single sign language in broad use in France that was the precursor of modern LSF.

20 C. Lucas and C. Valli, Language Contact in the American Deaf Community (New York: Academic Press, 1992); W. C. Stokoe, "Sign Language Diglossia," Studies in Linguistics 21(1970): 21111; T. S. Supalla and P. Clark, Sign Language Archeology: Understanding the Historical Roots of American Sign Language (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, in press.).

21 Kloss, "Bilingualism and Nationalism"; Fenton, Ethnicity.

22 B. Greenwald, "Taking Stock: Alexander Graham Bell and Eugenics, 18831922," in J. V. Van Cleve, ed., The Deaf History Reader (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2007), 136-152; R. Winefield, Never the Twain Shall Meet: The Communications Debate (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 1987).

23 Bell quoted in: National Education Association of the United States, Proceedings of Meeting Held in the Senate Chamber, Madison, Wis., Wednesday, July 16th, 1884, To Consider the Subject of Deaf-Mute Instruction in Relation to the Work of the Public Schools (Washington, D.C.: Gibson Brothers, 1885), quotation from p. 21. There were contemporary efforts to take Native American children off the reservations to teach them English and majority customs. A. Leibowitz, "Language and the Law: The Exercise of Political Power Through Official Designation of Language" in W. O'Barr and J. O'Barr, eds., Language and Politics (The Hague: Mouton, 1976), 449-466. Concerning Bell, see B. Greenwald, "Taking Stock."

24 D. Baynton, Forbidden Signs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).

25 T. S. Supalla and P. Clark "Infancy of American Sign Language." Unpublished manuscript, University of Rochester, 2008. The hearing son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, Edward Minor Gallaudet, was also among the orators in ASL.

26 Edwards, Language, Society; N. Glazer and D. P. Moynihan, Ethnicity: Theory and Experience (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975); Jenkins, Rethinking Ethnicity; M. Marger, Race and Ethnic Relations: American and Global Perspectives (5th ed.) (San Diego, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2003); Smith, Ethnic Origins.

27 Verkuyten, Social Psychology, quotation from p. 41.

28 Henri Tajfel, Social Identity and Intergroup Relations (New York: Cambridge University Press; 1982).

29 Glazer and Moynihan, Ethnicity; Jenkins, Rethinking Ethnicity.

30 Fishman, Language and Ethnicity; Glazer and Moynihan, Ethnicity; L. Vail, "Ethnicity in Southern African History," in R. Grinker and C. Steiner, eds., Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation (Oxford,: Blackwell Publishers, 1996), 52-68.

31 B. Kannapell, "Personal Awareness and Advocacy in the Deaf Community," in C. Baker and R. Battison, eds., Sign Language and the Deaf Community, Essays in Honor of William Stokoe (Silver Spring, Md.: National Association of the Deaf, 1980), 105-116, quotation from p. 112.

32 Fenton, Ethnicity.

33 T. Humphries, Personal communication. 2009. Adapted.

34 S. J. Carmel, "A Study of Deaf Culture in an American Urban Deaf Community" (Ph.D. dis. American University, 1987); Schein, Home Among Strangers (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 1989), quotation from p. 39.

J. Schein, The Deaf Population of the United States (Silver Spring, Md.: National Association of the Deaf, 1974). These data are not recent and the percentages may have changed.

35 A. Mindess, Reading Between the Signs: Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters (2nd ed.) (Boston, Mass.: Intercultural Press, 2006).

36 Hutchinson and Smith, Ethnicity; Smith, Ethnic Origins. For a meta-discussion of how to approach characterizing Deaf culture, see G. Turner, "How is Deaf Culture?" Sign Language Studies 83 (1994): 127-148.

37 V. N. Parrillo, Understanding Race and Ethnic Relations (Boston, Mass.: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2005).

38 S. Cornell and D. Hartmann, Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World. (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1998).

39 Fishman, Language and Ethnicity.

40 This discussion draws from P. Ladd, Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood (Clevedon, U.K.: Multilingual Matters, 2003); Mindess, Reading Between the Signs; C. Padden and T. Humphries, Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); C. Padden and T. Humphries, Inside Deaf Culture (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005); Rutherford, Deaf Folklore; T. Smith, Deaf People in Context (Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1996).

41 R. E. Johnson and C. Erting, "Ethnicity and Socialization in a Classroom for Deaf Children," in C. Lucas, ed., The Sociolinguistics of the Deaf Community (New York: Academic Press, 1989), 41-84.

42 Padden, "Deaf Community."

43 C. Baker, "Regulators and Turn-Taking in ASL Discourse," in L. Friedman, ed., On the Other Hand (New York: Academic Press, 1977); S. Hall "Train-GoneSorry: The Etiquette of Social Conversations in American Sign Language" Sign Language Studies 41 (1983): 291-309.

44 Padden and Humphries, Inside Deaf Culture.

45 Mindess, Reading Between the Signs; S. Supalla, The Book of Name Signs: Naming in American Sign Language (San Diego, Calif.: DawnSignPress, 1992); Y. Delaporte, Les Sourds, C'Est Comme (a: Ethnologic de la Surdimutite (Paris: Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 2002).

46 Ladd, Understanding Deaf Culture, see p. 364