This is something I recently posted as a reply to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trouble,*
Anyway, I've also seen references to "Hearing culture," which is an aspect of my cultural view-point I'd not considered before. But now that it's been brought to my attention, I can't stop wondering about it.
The thing about (neurotypical) humans is: we think in language. And the thing about heard languages is that we can hear a sound, or receive a message, and have no idea where it's coming from. If someone shouts "Fire!" in a crowd, we run -- we don't care who's shouting, or why.
Some of my earliest childhood memories are of lying awake in my bed at night, listening to my parents talking and laughing downstairs in the kitchen, and drifting off to sleep to that, comforted that I was not alone.
On the other hand, this weekend, I kept hearing an excited man's voice through my bedroom window, off in the distance. I couldn't make out what he was saying, whether he was close and unamplified, or speaking far away through a loudspeaker. I couldn't tell if he was simply enthusiastic, or furious at someone. And it kept going on. And it was making me nervous.
...And then, there are the proverbial "things that go bump in the night."
The thing about heard/spoken language is that:
A) it can come to us through the air in a "disembodied" way, and:
B) it travels directly to our emotional, limbic, centers of the brain (via the tone of voice, before the left temperal lobe gets down to work on it) -- reason is not strictly necessary.
But in seen/signed languages, the message is always embodied in the messenger -- to take part in a discourse, you must look the messenger in the eye.
So here're a couple of the questions that've been rattling 'round in my brain for the last week or so:
1) "If Plato had been Deaf, and a native signer, would he have come up with the doctrine of the Real Vs. Ideal?
2) "Is it the disembodied quality of speach (and thereby, thought) in "hearing culture", that has led to the whole mind/body dualism that dominates religious thought, and plagues our medical system?"
...Haven't come up with any answers, yet. But I think the questions are interesting.
(and one of the neighbor's dogs is barking hysterically... again).
*Her post is here: I'm supposed to be marking more midterms
**No, I did not. EASY and ALMOST are closer to being a minimal pair than EASY and EXCUSE-ME, and I'd gotten the three of them switched around in my head -- Though to be fair to myself, all three use the same Bent B handshape.
***Which is an indication that it's shifting its position in the language from a piece of foreign-language-based jargon to having its own culturally-embedded meaning.
trouble,* (Quote) You know, this summer, when I started watching ASL vlogs on YouTube, it was mostly just to remind myself what basic signs looked like (did I remember the difference between "EXCUSE-ME" and "EASY," for example).** And what I stumbled upon instead was a veritable cultural revolustion. ...I've kind of gotten sucked in.
You see, there are these massive aggregate sites (or they were massive, earlier this year) for Deaf vlogs and blogs, called "DVTV" (Deaf Video TV) and DeafRead, both run by one guy. But, apparently, Deaf users were getting upset by the number of people coming on spouting audist (like racist for the ear) sentiments, and were asking this guy to put statements condemning audism, disablism and homophobia in his user guidelines (sound familiar? might be something in the air...). And so far, he's refused. So people are leaving, and just posting their stuff directly to YouTube.
So -- the Tube is full of discussions of what Deafhood is, and what Audism is (and I've been watching the switch from fingerspelling the latter to back and forth discussions on how that should be signed***). It's kind of like watching the Protestant revolution around the time the printing press became a viable means of communication. Rather exciting. (Unquote)
Anyway, I've also seen references to "Hearing culture," which is an aspect of my cultural view-point I'd not considered before. But now that it's been brought to my attention, I can't stop wondering about it.
The thing about (neurotypical) humans is: we think in language. And the thing about heard languages is that we can hear a sound, or receive a message, and have no idea where it's coming from. If someone shouts "Fire!" in a crowd, we run -- we don't care who's shouting, or why.
Some of my earliest childhood memories are of lying awake in my bed at night, listening to my parents talking and laughing downstairs in the kitchen, and drifting off to sleep to that, comforted that I was not alone.
On the other hand, this weekend, I kept hearing an excited man's voice through my bedroom window, off in the distance. I couldn't make out what he was saying, whether he was close and unamplified, or speaking far away through a loudspeaker. I couldn't tell if he was simply enthusiastic, or furious at someone. And it kept going on. And it was making me nervous.
...And then, there are the proverbial "things that go bump in the night."
The thing about heard/spoken language is that:
A) it can come to us through the air in a "disembodied" way, and:
B) it travels directly to our emotional, limbic, centers of the brain (via the tone of voice, before the left temperal lobe gets down to work on it) -- reason is not strictly necessary.
But in seen/signed languages, the message is always embodied in the messenger -- to take part in a discourse, you must look the messenger in the eye.
So here're a couple of the questions that've been rattling 'round in my brain for the last week or so:
1) "If Plato had been Deaf, and a native signer, would he have come up with the doctrine of the Real Vs. Ideal?
2) "Is it the disembodied quality of speach (and thereby, thought) in "hearing culture", that has led to the whole mind/body dualism that dominates religious thought, and plagues our medical system?"
...Haven't come up with any answers, yet. But I think the questions are interesting.
(and one of the neighbor's dogs is barking hysterically... again).
*Her post is here: I'm supposed to be marking more midterms
**No, I did not. EASY and ALMOST are closer to being a minimal pair than EASY and EXCUSE-ME, and I'd gotten the three of them switched around in my head -- Though to be fair to myself, all three use the same Bent B handshape.
***Which is an indication that it's shifting its position in the language from a piece of foreign-language-based jargon to having its own culturally-embedded meaning.
