Crossing social boundaries and dispersing social identity : tracing deaf networks from Cape Town

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The conciliatory discourse of the South African Deaf social movement claims acommonality across South Africa's historical divides on the basis of a 'Deaf culture'. Thisclaim in view of South Africa's deeply entrenched 'racial' divisions triggered this study.The study investigates the construction of Deaf identity and emphasizes the crossing ofsocial boundaries in Cape Town, a society with a long history of discriminatoryboundaries based on race. The study was carried out among adults who became deafas children, the group for whom deafness, commonly viewed as both sensory and socialdeficit, is said to pose considerable linguistic, social and cultural challenges. It focusedon strategies that deal with being deaf in a predominantly hearing world. To identifystrategies, for this population without a geographical base, the study traced networks ofsocial relationships.Fieldwork was carried out from September 1995 to December 2001. BetweenSeptember 1995 and December 1997 research included systematic participantobservation and informal interviews. Between January 1998 and December 2001 ,continuing with participant observation and informal interviews, the study added formalinterviews with a sample population of 94 deaf people across Cape Town, collected bythe snowball method. The profile of this sample shows a relatively heterogeneouspopulation on the basis of demographic factors and residential area but similarity on thebasis of first language, Sign.The study demonstrates that history imposed boundaries. It categorized the Deaf asdifferent from the hearing and in addition, in South Africa, produced further differentiationon the basis of apartheid category, age, Deaf school attended, method of education andspoken language. In this historical context the study identified a key strategy, 'Signingspaces'. A Signing space, identifiable on the basis of Sign-based communication, is aset of networks that extends from the deaf individual to include deaf and hearing people.On analysis it comprises a Sign-hear and a Sign-Q.e.gfspace. In Sign-~ networks,hearing people predominate. Relationships are domestic and near neighbourhood. In Sign-~ networks, deaf people predominate. Relationships are sociable and markedby familiarity.The study found that via the Signing space, the Deaf subvert deafness as deficit torecoup a social identity that is multi-faceted and dispersed across context. Boundariescrossed also vary by context and by networks. Sign-~ networks address the hearingboundary. Limits could be identified in the public arena, when barriers to communicationand a poor supply of professional Sign language interpreters again rendered deafnessas deficit. The boundaries of the Sign-deaf networks were difficult to determine andsuggest the potential, facilitated by Sign language, to transcend South Africa's spokenlanguages and the related historical divisions. Sign-~ networks also suggest theadditional potential, in sociable contexts, to transcend spoken language, trans-nationally.But mutual intelligibility of Sign language and the familiarity, communality andcommonality it offered did not deny an awareness of historical differentiation anddiscrimination, as a case of leadership succession presented as a 'social drama' shows.However, the process of the 'social drama' also demonstrates that conflict, crises, and adiscourse that reflects South Africa's historical divisions need not threaten a broadercommonality.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University