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Chapter Three The Use ofGuide Dogs and Long Canes When physical disability is culturally constructed through concepts of stigma the physically impaired individual is prone to various forms of discredit. The elucidation ofthese social consequences constitutes a major trend in the literature on discredited people ever since Goffman.1 In addition to the consequences of stigmatization of disabled individuals the literature also highlights the effect of stigma for individuals who are part of the ambience of the discredited person. Such individuals, although themselves able-bodied, are prone to be subjected to "courtesy stigma" (Jones et al. 1984: 71-76, and citations ). Another major focus of the literature on discredited people is on the reaction to, or management of stigma, by individuals. Some of the ethnographies of physically disabling conditions mentioned in the introduction, provide vivid insight into various strategies that individuals employ. The aim of this chapter is to draw attention to the fact that discredit does not pertain only to individuals, but also to material objects and, paradoxically, even to the implements of aid that disabled people use to assist themselves. This perspective on the study of physical disability is also pertinent to the more general socioanthropological study of material culture. One approach to that area has been that of the classical Chicago school of urban sociology as exemplified by Ogburn 1933, and many associates, and now interestingly resuscitated by Claude Fischer 1985, 1988, and others.2 These scholars seek to demonstrate the social effects of technologies. But whereas the older work was framed in generalities, the new work is relatively much more specific, both in terms of the problems formulated and of the empirical fields subjected to research. Material culture has also been approached from the anthropological angle. Scholars such as Douglas and Isherwood 1978, Csikszentmihaly and Rochberg-Halton 1981, and the contributors to the Appadurai 1986 collection have demonstrated that mundane household artifacts which 25 26 Blind People people bring into their homes are pregnant with cultural meaning, often attributed idiosyncratically by their owners. According to this view a major, though certainly not the sole function of the acquisition and consumption of goods, is to make order and to discriminate. The sociological and anthropological approaches are thus complementary: the latter illuminates subtle, cultural and personal existential factors that operate beside the more overt social, organizational and material forces. The present study, dwelling upon a unique category of material objects, mobility aids for blind people, is part of the current wave of interest in material culture. In particular, it draws together the strands of disparate approaches, seeking thereby to underpin the theoretical significance ofthe various approaches. Following upon the forementioned insights into material culture, one may concede to the general statement, that "medical technology is moulded in no straightforward sense by a simple goal of efficacious healing" (MacKenzie and Wajcman 1985:306). However, while socioanthropological perspectives have enlightened our understanding of medical knowledge, they have on the whole not been brought to bear upon the study of the social shaping of the material artifacts and technology of medicine. MacKenzie and Wajcman go on to suggest plausibly: Prevailing medical theory, the social nature of the doctorpatient relation, institutional frameworks such as hospitals ... divides of gender, class and race, the role of the state-all these appear to have a place in shaping medical technology (op. cit.). Focusing now upon the mobility aids of blind people, as part of the broad complex of technology designed to assist people with physical disorders, will contribute to fill this lacuna in our understanding of the dynamics ofmaterial culture. 1. Long Canes Impaired mobility, caused by blindness, is a major component of the stigmatizing image that the sighted have of blind people and is a matter of crucial concern to blind people themselves. The writer, Ved Mehta, recalls in his memoirs an incident that highlights this. Mehta was a seventeen year-old graduate of a school for the blind, taking leave ofa sighted teacher who had trained him many years: "Son, what's the most precious thing you're taking from us?" Mr. Wooly asked, breaking the little silence in the car-it seemed that none of us knew what to say. "Mobil- The Use of Guide Dogs ity," I said unhesitatingly. I was surprised at the baldness of my reply" (New Yorker, November 25, 1985, p. 129). 27 The era of electronics has brought with it promises that electronic pathfinders would revolutionize blindness-linked mobility. But certainly in Israel, and probably elsewhere too...

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