“Is the Joke on us, Deaf Anthropologists?” Reflections on Native Anthropology of Deaf Culture by Deaf Researchers
Temas
Detalles
According to the prominent scholar Claude Levi-Strauss, the most significant distinction between the fields of anthropology and sociology is that anthropologists study “others” outside of their culture and society, while the sociologists study their social lives of their people groups and societies. This presents a challenge: we need some serious reflection about the field of anthropology and Deaf anthropologists. As a Deaf anthropologist, I felt obligated to explore something exotic and decided to present more information about an inconspicuous country, Eritrea, which is my heritage country. This paper will include some contemplation that explores the idea of “native anthropology,” which means that an “‘insider” does research on the cultural, racial, or ethnic group of which they belong in. This contradicts the foundation of anthropology that takes up after Levi-Strauss on studying on “otherness”.
In addition, perpetuating the notion of Deaf ethnicity with a multiethnic identity, a Deaf person of color shares more than merely a language-cultural minority. A issue dominating current debates is a growing population of immigrants or Diasporas and the generation of immigrant- parents reconnecting with their heritage countries. Will the other country and their Deaf natives still be considered as the “others” if the Deaf anthropologist shares the same ethnicity?