The nature of signs: Nepal’s deaf society, local sign, and the production of communicative sociality
Temas
Detalles
This dissertation centers on two sites in deaf Nepal to examine how the relationship betweencommunication and sociality is constituted, negotiated, and discussed in circumstances whenlanguage cannot be taken for granted.The decades following the founding of Nepal’s first deaf school in 1966 have witnessed thesimultaneous emergence and dissemination of “deaf society” and the communicative practicesnow known as Nepali Sign Language (NSL). Despite growing numbers of deaf-run organizationsand educational facilities for the deaf, NSL signers still constitute a very small percentage of alldeaf Nepalis. This dissertation is based on extensive fieldwork with both NSL signers and withdeaf people who communicate using what NSL signers call “natural sign,” a limited repertoire ofsigns shared by deaf and hearing people.