An Introduction to the Culture of Deaf People in the United States: Content Notes & Reference Material for Teachers

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CULTURE OF DEAF PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES: Content Notes & Reference Material for Teachers Tom Humphries Introduction Along with the growth in interest in American Sign Language has come a growth in understanding the culture of the people from whom this language comes. Some information about the lives of Deaf people is provided either by design or by accident in ASL classeswhen we teach ASL, we hardly can avoid being questioned about different aspects of Deaf people's lives, about what they think and what they do. Students of ASL want and need this information about the people whose language they are learning. Others, who are not studying ASL, also are seeking an understanding of Deaf people beyond what they are able to observe themselves. On the one hand, there is real curiosity about the culture of Deaf people, and on the other hand, a strong skepticism that there is significant difference between Deaf people and the hearing people among whom they live. Unfortunately, it has been observed that much of the information being given to students of ASL and others who wish to study the culture of Deaf people is sociological, psychological, or educational information-or is focused only on specific behaviors that quickly become stereotypical. It has proven difficult to get at and put into a curriculum the ideology, the designs, and the symbols and their meaning that make up the system of cultural knowledge that Deaf people pass from one generation to the next. It is therein that the understanding and difference that many are so curious about are to be found. @1990 by Linstok Press, Inc. See note inside front cover. ISSN 0302-1475 209 210 Humphries SLS 72 If we are to attain and sustain the credibility of both the culture of these people and the courses that we offer, our curriculum must be approached from a theoretical framework that helps us to interpret for the student the data that is available about Deaf people. There is, of course, plenty of data. The everyday "talk" of Deaf people, their folk tales and myths, poetry, political statements, writings in English, public performances, jokes, labels-as well as behaviors-are all pathways into this culture, if we have a way of interpreting them. In a sense, cultural analysis is always incomplete.' But what is clear is that in studying culture we are seeking what Deaf people know and how they interpret their world. Our role as teachers of courses in Deaf culture, then, is to help the student interpret the data that Deaf people offer us to examine. How do Deaf people organize their world and the meaning attached to it? What are the designs for living that Deaf people have created and follow or wish to follow? What are the beliefs that Deaf people have about themselves, their group, and others? What are the essentials that Deaf people consider necessary for a Deaf way of being? What are the underlying structures of which Deaf people's everyday actions are surface expressions? What are the ideological principles upon which the structures are based? All these and more are the questions we need to ask ourselves as we prepare to teach. The course notes and reference materials below are an example of how a course may be organized, both to raise and begin to answer some of these questions. Some of the reference materials may not be available to some teachers. That is definitely a problem. Valuable data such as videotapes of public performances, and ASL poetry, films, published writings of Deaf authors, and even some research papers are often not for sale, not held in libraries, and not available for loan from personal collections. Still, there is data if we are serious about obtaining it. There is no doubt that various materials can be used to teach the same content; one need not be bound by the materials described below. No doubt also other topics than these could be discussed. 1C.Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures. 1973. NY: Basic Books. Chap. 1. Teaching Deaf Culture Required: Padden &Humphries. Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture. 1988. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Suggested student...