Many Ways to Be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities

As political, social, and economic factors cause the world to shrink, people of many diverse cultures find themselves interacting with each other. Americans no longer view the world with "ethnocentric" glasses, but are learning to value diversity. This new book comes at just the right time, showing through a compilation of works from authors around the world that sign languages from various nations, while different, can be a significantly unifying factor to the worldwide Deaf community. Not only does this work present surprisingly parallel stories of the different struggles and successes of the Deaf community throughout the world, it suggests that in compiling the material for their work, the researchers may have inadvertently set the stage for a more general understanding of world cultures and for valuing diversity. If the Deaf communities of the world can value each other, perhaps we all can. Recommended. All levels and collections.

-- J. A. LeClair, SUNY Oswego


International Deaf Communities   November 4, 2003
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

An article from the Deaf Base website (www.deafbase.com/article473.html)

"The challenges faced by deaf people in Sweden are quite different from those in Nicaragua and are set on a common global stage," explain Leila Monaghan and Constanze Schmaling, two of the contributors of Many Ways to Be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities edited by Monaghan, Schmaling, Karen Nakamura, and Graham H. Turner. In this volume, twenty-four international scholars have contributed their findings from studying Deaf communities in Japan, Thailand, Viet Nam, Taiwan, Russia, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Great Britain, Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Nicaragua, and the United States. Sixteen chapters consider the various antecedents of each country's native signed language, taking into account the historical background for their development and also the effects of foreign influences and changes in philosophies by the larger, dominant hearing societies.

"Key themes of this volume include how Deaf communities have survived despite opposition by those who thought and think that Deaf people should not be allowed to have their own separate communities outside of hearing cultures, how forms of education interact with and are reflections of larger sociocultural processes, and how signed languages are crucial parts of Deaf communities everywhere." The diversity of background and training among the contributors to Many Ways to Be Deaf distinguishes it as a genuine and unique multicultural examination of the myriad manifestations of being Deaf in a diverse world.


Foundation for Endangered Languages Review   November 4, 2003
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A book notice from the Foundation for Endangered Languages:
OGMIOS Newsletter 2.9 (#21): Summer - 31 July 2003 (www.ogmios.org/2111.htm).

Many Ways to Be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities: Leila Monaghan, Constanze Schmaling, Karen Nakamura, and Graham H. Turner, Editors

The recent explosion of sociocultural, linguistic, and historical research on signed languages throughout the world has culminated in Many Ways to Be Deaf, an unmatched collection of in-depth articles about linguistic diversity in Deaf communities on five continents. Twenty-four international scholars have contributed their findings from studying Deaf communities in Japan, Thailand, Viet Nam, Taiwan, Russia, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Great Britain, Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Nicaragua, and the United States. Sixteen chapters consider the various antecedents of each country's native signed language, taking into account the historical background for their development and also the effects of foreign influences and changes in philosophies by the larger, dominant hearing societies.

The topics covered include, inter alia: the evolution of British finger-spelling traced back to the 17th century; the comparison of Swiss German Sign Language with Rhaeto-Romansch, another Swiss minority language; the analysis of seven signed languages described in Thailand and how they differ in relation to their distance from isolated Deaf communities to Bangkok and other urban centers; and the vaulting development of a nascent sign language in Nicaragua. ISBN 1-56368-135-8, 7 x 10 casebound, 288 pages, glossary, references, index, $69.95s


Chronicle of Higher Education   September 17, 2003
 1 out of 4 found this review helpful

CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
New Scholarly Books
9/13/2003, A17
COMMUNICATION
Many Ways to be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities, edited by Leila Monaghan and others (Gallaudet University Press; 326 pages; $69.95) Research on sign language in Austria, Brazil, Britain, Ireland, Japan, Nicaragua, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States.


A ground breaking contribution to Deaf Studies   August 7, 2003
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Collaboratively compiled and edited by Leila Monaghan (Lecturer in the Department of Communication and Cultural at Indiana University, Bloomington); Constanze Schmaling (Linguist at the Institute of German Sign Language at Hamburg University, Germany); Karen Nakamura (Professor of Anthropology at Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota); and Graham H. Turner (Senior Lecturer in the Deaf Studies Program at the University of Central Lancashire, Great Britain), Many Ways To Be Deaf: Internal Variation In Deaf Communities is a compendium of scholarly assessments of deaf communities and sign languages worldwide, ranging from Swiss German Sign Language; to the developing sign language of Nicaragua; the conflicts of hearing culture and deaf culture in various nations; some national tendencies to view the hearing improvements of cochlear implants as motive sufficient to dismiss the importance of sign language, and much, much more. An exhaustively researched and critically insightful resource, Many Ways To Be Deaf is an impressive work of scholarship and a ground breaking contribution to Deaf Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.