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ERIC Number: EJ1071762
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0302-1475
EISSN: N/A
Deaf Sociality and the Deaf Lutheran Church in Adamorobe, Ghana
Kusters, Annelies
Sign Language Studies, v14 n4 p466-487 Sum 2014
This article provides an ethnographic analysis of "deaf sociality" in Adamorobe, a village in Ghana, where the relatively high prevalence of hereditary deafness has led to dense social and spatial connections. Deaf people are part of their hearing environment particularly through family networks, and produce deaf sociality through many informal interactive practices which take place in "deaf spaces". In this context, efforts by the Deaf Lutheran Church to institute deaf-only signed worship services and (development) projects have been unsuccessful. Deaf community members are a priori socialized into practices of deaf sociality through deaf spaces and see little or no need for this set of practices which bring them few benefits. Furthermore, collective structuring, social security, social work, interpreting and leadership rather happen in the context of lineages and extended families--where sign language is used--rather than in deaf-based support networks.
Gallaudet University Press. 800 Florida Avenue NE, Denison House, Washington, DC 20002-3695. Tel: 202-651-5488; Fax: 202-651-5489; Web site: http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/SLS.html
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Ghana
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A