23 Aug 2002 13:1 AR AR169-AN31-04.tex AR169-AN31-04.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: IBC 10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.020402.101302 Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2002. 31:69–97 doi: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.020402.101302 Copyright c 2002 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved First published online! as a Review in Advance on June 26, 2002 SIGNS OF THEIR TIMES: Deaf Communities and the Culture of Language Richard J. Senghas1 and Leila Monaghan2 1Sonoma State University, Department of Anthropology/Linguistics, 1801 East Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park, California 94928-3609; email:
[email protected] 2Temple University, Department of Anthropology, 1115 West Berks Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122; email:
[email protected] Key Words sign language, deafness, linguistic communities, Deaf culture ■ Abstract Because of their deafness, deaf people have been marked as different and treated problematically by their hearing societies. Until 25 years ago, academic literature addressing deafness typically described deafness as pathology, focusing on cures or mitigation of the perceived handicap. In ethnographic accounts, interactions involving deaf people are sometimes presented as examples of how communities treat atypical members. Recently, studies of deafness have adopted more complex sociocul- tural perspectives, raising issues of community identity, formation and maintenance, and language ideology. Anthropological researchers have approached the study of d/Deaf communities from at least three useful angles. The first, focusing on the history of these communities, demonstrates that the current issues have roots in the past, including the central role of education in the creation and maintenance of communities. A second approach cen- ters on emic perspectives, drawing on the voices of community members themselves and accounts of ethnographers.