Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Advance Access originally published online on November 23, 2005
The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2006 11(2):267; doi:10.1093/deafed/enj015
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A Breath of Fresh Air
Inside Deaf Culture
Padden, C., & Humphries, T. (2005). Inside Deaf Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
208 pages. $22.95.
Private Practice
Inside Deaf Culture by Carol Padden and Tom Humphries offers an exquisite narrative of the historical and present forces that shape the lives of deaf people. Their analysis includes educational structures, power/control dynamics with the "hearing world," economic and vocational trends, and the role of technology in defining one's Deaf identity. The authors construct a mosaic, of sorts, of these myriad forces that influence, and are influenced by, Deaf culture and Deaf community. I got a humbled appreciation of the complexity of what goes into shaping identity.
I appreciated most that Padden and Humphries did not oversimplify the subject matter. For example, they do not give a superficial, idealized analysis of residential schools for the Deaf. While they acknowledge their vital role in transmitting culture and providing communication accessibility (in contrast to mainstreamed classrooms), they also acknowledge the pernicious influences of some instances of abuse of power, such as sexual and physical abuse, bureaucratic rigidity, and management, leading to potential dehumanization. Residential schools are described as positive but with an explanation of how and why things can go wrong.
The following were the other highpoints of the book for me. The authors do a superb job elucidating the history of segregation of African–American Deaf students from White Deaf students. In recounting the cultural history, they offer a fascinating look at the subtle political influences that have shaped the National Theater of the Deaf. I enjoyed their descriptions of lexical changes in American Sign Language, which again gives one a deeper appreciation of the richness of the language and Deaf culture. In an intriguing chapter entitled "Cultures Into the Future," Padden and Humphries examine the complex and controversial effects of technology on culture and identity—for example, cochlear implantation and Human Genome Project.
This is a fabulous book, well researched and well written.
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