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From the seventeenth century to the early years of the twentieth, the population of Martha's Vineyard manifested an extremely high rate of profound hereditary deafness. In stark contrast to the experience of most deaf people in our own society, the Vineyarders who were born deaf were so thoroughly integrated into the daily life of the community that they were not seen--and did not see themselves--as handicapped or as a group apart. Deaf people were included in all aspects of life, such as town politics, jobs, church affairs, and social life. How was this possible?
On the Vineyard, hearing and deaf islanders alike grew up speaking sign language. This unique sociolinguistic adaptation meant that the usual barriers to communication between the hearing and the deaf, which so isolate many deaf people today, did not exist.
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Deaf people throughout history have experienced much isolation and social disadvantage. The dominant view of deafness in our society is one of disablement. The prevailing response to the condition has been to "normalise" affected individuals by the provision of such things as hearing aids and speech therapy, seeing this as the only way to help them to function and interact in daily life. However, many deaf people do not think of themselves as disabled, but rather as part of a linguistic minority.
Nora Groce's book, examines the very different reaction to deafness that that occurred many years ago within a very small community on the island of Martha's Vineyard, USA. Many of the islands population were deaf. The cause of this is widely accepted to be hereditary. Groce documents the social response to this situation. The book details how islanders were routinely proficient in the islands own sign language, regardless of weather they were hearing or deaf.
This meant that communication was seamless. Individuals were not seen as different and were able to participate in all aspects of daily life.
The book is a wonderfully concise and readable style that uses both oral testimonies and historical records which are wonderfully edited into an extremely readable style to provide a vivid account of a society with an ethos far in advance of its time.
British sign language (BSL) is now recognised as a language in its own right; even so, deaf people often remain unable to access communication on their own terms. What happened on Martha's Vineyard, is a wonderful example of what is possible when responding to the needs of all individuals in society.
This book is full of fascinating little anecdotes, about how island society worked to include its deaf members. For example, we learn about families and friends, some deaf and some hearing, who would regularly sit next to each other in church. The hearing members would sign the sermons to their deaf friends. Or, sometimes groups of people who could hear perfectly well might be together, for whatever reason, and they might happen to converse by signing just as much as in spoken English. Everyone spoke both languages.
Some of my favorite parts of the book focus on the benefits of signing. For example, perhaps two neighbors wanted to converse, while being separated by 200 yards of noisy space, made vocally impenetrable by sounds of surf and sea. Whether they were deaf or hearing, they could get out their spyglasses (this was a 19th century whaling community, where spyglasses were in every household) and sign to each other across the distance while viewing each other through the magnification afforded by the spyglasses. One entertaining anecdote tells of two young men, who could hear perfectly well, who would use their signing ability to pick up girls off-island. They would pique the girls' interest in them by signing amongst themselves, and would claim that one of them was deaf. After they had secured the girls' interest, they would put on a lengthy, well-practiced charade of deafness to keep the gils curious about them. Do they ever let on that they can really hear? You'll have to read the book to find out! Bwa ha ha haaaa ( that's the sound of an evil laugh).
Those are a few minor anecdotes. The whole book is packed with stories like that, and it's endlessly amazing. The last couple of chapters make excellent, general points about the human issues raised in the book, and about how we as a society think about the "handicapped" -- perhaps, as Dr. Groce points out, we should not use the term in the first place.
Anyway, I'm really pleased to call attention to this book. I wish it were more widely known. If you're reading this because you linked to my reviewer's page from my review of "Jeepers Creepers," or something at a similar level, then, well, I'm just happy you're reading about this valuable story as well as "Jeepers Creepers." Two thumbs up.
The book analyses cultural impact of the large deaf population within the Vineyard's communities, which was biologically caused by the genetic predisposition for deafness. The book, largely written like an anthropological study, focuses on both physical and cultural aspect of the deafness in the communities. However, the most interesting implications within the book are those discussing deaf and hearing interrelations.
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