The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry (32 page)

Furthermore, if Deaf ethnicity were more widely recognized, parents could have a more positive understanding of their Deaf child, they could see more clearly why interacting with Deaf adults and promoting ASL use is so important, and they could weigh more carefully and wisely the risks and benefits of cochlear implantation.

Deaf Education

The recognition of Deaf ethnicity also orients us differently to Deaf education. The Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe calls on educational systems to ensure that "persons belonging to those minorities have adequate opportunities for being taught in the minority language."" The use of the ethnic minority language is a human right as well as wise educational practice.12 If teachers could communicate with their Deaf students in the language of their ethnic group, a language the students can readily understand, many more Deaf students would be prepared for important roles in our postindustrial society. Moreover, it is the law: schools with large numbers of pupils whose primary language is not English are eligible for funds under the Bilingual Education Act and must conform to court rulings that require, transitionally at least, employment of the minority language, of minority role models, and of a curriculum that reflects minority heritage.13 No ethnic group has a stronger claim on an education that draws on their minority language than does the DeafWorld, for no ethnic group encounters greater obstacles to mastering the dominant language. Because parents who carry the Deaf trait unexpressed can pass on the physical element of Deaf ethnicity but frequently cannot pass on language and culture, it becomes essential for the children in this ethnic minority to interact early on with Deaf peers and with adult Deaf role models. If the opportunity to learn an accessible natural language is withheld, those children will spend years languageless, reduced to using primitive home sign. An ethnic conception of the Deaf child, however, could foster early recognition of the need for Deaf language models; it could lead parents and parent-infant programs to ensure early language learning; and it could lead schools to exploit that sign language mastery for effective instruction in the dominant language and all else.

Deaf Reproduction

The ethnic conceptualization of the Deaf-World casts a new light, further, on efforts to control Deaf reproduction, efforts like genetic screening and prenatal testing to avoid Deaf births.14 Is it ethical to undertake a program of medical intervention aimed at reducing the membership of an ethnic group, a program contrary to the wishes of that group? Most Deaf people are opposed to genetic testing for restricting Deaf births and are equally pleased to have a Deaf or a hearing child.15 The tendency to see pathology and not ethnicity in the DeafWorld fosters demeaning and outmoded forms of speech such as citing the risk of having a child belonging to that ethnic group or the need for therapy to avoid or remediate ethnic identity. If the Deaf were widely understood to be an ethnic group, eugenic measures to restrict the birth of Deaf ethnics would be seen as conflicting with our fundamental values.

There are many more issues in ethnic relations between the mainstream and the Deaf that would be altered to mutual advantage by the ethnic perspective. The comprehensive promise of such a paradigm change has been well described by Tom HumphriesD: "Acceptance of Deaf ethnicity removes one more obstacle to a clear understanding of who Deaf people are (and are not). This alters the relationship between Deaf and hearing people and creates opportunities for Deaf people to bring about change."16

Notes

Part V

1 A. J. Boyce et al., "Neighborhood Knowledge and the Distribution of Marriage Distances," Annals of Human Genetics 30 (1967): 335-338.

2 Simon Athearn, Joyce Baker, Patience Bigge, Nicholas Butler, Joanna Clements, William Curtis, Andrew Cushman, Thomas Cushman, Dolor Davis, John Davis, Samuel Eddy, Ralph Farnum, Ralph (2nd) Farnum, Thomas Farnum, Nicholas Fessenden, Richard Foster, Margaret Gowen, Susanna Hinckley, Hannah House, William Jellison, Edward Kennard, Thomas Lambert, Benjamin Lathrop, John Libby, Edmund Littlefield, Abraham Lord, James Lord, Nathan Lord, Hannah Lynnell, Sarah Partridge, Elizabeth Savery, James Skiffe, Rev. John Smith, Isabel Tempest, John Wakefield, Joyce Wallen, Hannah Whitney, Margery Willard, Stephen Wing.

3 United Nations, Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, 1992, Resolution 47/135. www. un-documents.net/a47r135.htm (accessed 7/25/2010).

4 United Nations, Article 2, # 3.

5 S. Gregory and G. M. Hartley. Constructing Deafness. (London: Pinter, 1991).

6 H. Lane, "The Cochlear Implant Controversy," World Federation of the Deaf News 2-3 (1994): 22-28.

7 P. Hyde, R. Punch, and L. Komesaroff, "Coming to a Decision about Cochlear Implantation: Parents Making Choices for Their Deaf Children." Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 15 (2010): 162-178; D. Moores, "Cochlear Implants: A Perspective [not very successful]," American Annals of the Deaf 154 (2010): 415-416.

8 A. M. Muhlke, "The Right to Language and Linguistic Development: Deafness from a Human Rights Perspective," Virginia Journal of International Law 40 (2000):, 707-766; L. M. Siegel, The Human Right to Language: Communication Access for Deaf Children (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2008).

9 G. Loeb, Letters to the editor; "Doomed Ghetto Culture." In E. Dolnick, "Deafness as Culture," Atlantic Monthly 272 (1993): 37-54. Reprinted Deaf Life 6 (1993): 33.

10 Robert Johnson, personal communication, 2009.

11 conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/157.htm Quotation from Article 14. (accessed 2/15/09). See also: Consultation Sur Les Differentes Approches de l'Education Des Sourds. ED-84/ws/102. Paris: UNESCO, 1985.

12 R. E. Johnson, S. K. Liddell, and C. J. Erting, "Unlocking the Curriculum: Principles for Achieving Access in Deaf Education," Gallaudet Research Institute Working Papers (1989); R. C. Johnson, ed., "Access: Language in Deaf Education. Proceedings of a Seminar Sponsored by the Gallaudet Research Institute Concerning 'Unlocking the Curriculum."' Gallaudet Research Institute Occasional Papers (1990); R. C. Johnson, "The Publication and Early Aftermath of 'Unlocking the Curriculum,"' Sign Language Studies 69 (1990): 295-325.

13 H. Lane, The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community. (New York: Knopf, 1992); J. Haft, "Assuring Equal Educational Opportunity For Language-Minority Students: Bilingual Education and the Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974." Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems 18 (1983): 209-293.

14 K. W. Anstey, "Are Attempts to Have Impaired Children Justifiable? Couples Should Not Be Allowed to Select Either for or Against Deafness. (Current Controversy)," Journal of Medical Ethics 28 (2008): 286; M. Spriggs, "Lesbian Couple Create a Child Who Is Deaf Like Them: A Deaf Lesbian Couple Who Chose to Have a Deaf Child Receive a Lot of Criticism," Journal of Medical Ethics 28 (2008): 283.

15 S. J. Stern et al., "The Attitudes of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals Toward Genetic Testing of Hearing Loss," American Journal of Human Genetics 67 (4) suppl. 2 (2000): 32.

16 Tom Humphries, personal communication, 2009.

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The pedigrees cited in this section are a selection from a larger set posted on the web at: http://dvn.iq.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/DEA Families addressed in Appendix A: Bourne, Butler, Daggett, Deering, Dillingham, Edwards, Fessenden, Frank, Larrabee, Libby, Littlefield, Luce, Ludwig, Nason, Norton, Perkins, Riggs, Skillin, Small, Titcomb, Wakefield.

OTHER VINEYARD LINEAGES

In addition to the Vineyard lineages with progenitors from Kent, described in Chapter 6, several other Vineyard families had Deaf descendants. The Norton progenitor, Nicholas, immigrated to Edgartown on the Vineyard from Somerset in England. His daughter married John Butler of Kentish ancestry in Edgartown in 1673 and that is the last time we see the Norton name in the Deaf pedigree. Five generations later in this pedigree, Deaf children start to appear named Mayhew, West, and others. The progenitor of the Look family immigrated to Lynn, Massachusetts, from Scotland; he was a collier at the iron works. His son Thomas moved to Tisbury and operated a grist mill. In the late 1600s, Thomas's daughters initiated three lines of descent (one was married twice) that yielded Deaf descendants-with names like Mayhew, Tilton, and West-when remote and not-so-remote cousins married.

In the Bourne pedigree, the progenitor Richard Bourne, who emigrated from Devon to Sandwich, Massachusetts, had numerous Deaf descendants. His son married a Skiffe of Kentish ancestry, and they initiated three lines of descent with Deaf members: Their daughter married a Mayhew, moved to Chilmark, and had four Deaf descendants; another daughter married an Allen and had a Deaf great grandson; finally, a granddaughter married into the Newcomb family and had twenty-two Deaf descendants.

John Doggett (or Daggett) emigrated from Suffolk, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1630 in Winthrop's fleet. He moved to the Vineyard not long after his townsman in Watertown, Thomas Mayhew. Daggett had two sons who initiated two branches but extensive marriage between the branches (that is, consanguinity) followed in later generations. After the progenitor's grandchildren, no further Daggetts appear in the Deaf pedigree.'

The progenitor Henry Luce traveled from Gloucestershire, England, to Scituate and then in 1670 to Tisbury, Massachusetts. Early in the nineteenth century, there were forty Luce families on the Vineyard with five Deaf members, including Charles, a NEGA member. Eleven of those Luce families migrated to Maine; half of those to the Sandy River Valley (see Chapter 8).

THE DILLINGHAM-FESSENDEN CLAN

AbigailD and NancyD Dillingham of Lee, Massachusetts, both attended the American Asylum (see Fig. 8, Newcomb pedigree).2 In the school rolls, they were credited with fifteen Deaf relatives. Both women were said to be "remarkably intelligent."3 Brother Charles, a Coda, and teacher at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, married Martha HeatonD from that place; she had three Deaf siblings. The Dillingham sisters trace their lineage back to the Reverend Henry Dillingham (not shown), who left Leicestershire, England, to settle in Sandwich on Cape Cod. There his descendants remained until the parents of the two Deaf sisters moved to Lee and then Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The Dillingham sisters' maternal grandfather, Benjamin Fessenden of Sandwich, was descended on his mother's side from the progenitor Reverend John Smith. The woman he married, Sarah Newcomb, was the granddaughter of Chilmark resident Mercy Smith and a descendant, like Benjamin, of the Reverend John Smith. This Benjamin's grandfather, Nicholas Fessenden, was born in Canterbury, Kent, and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Nicholas was a glove and harness maker.4

THE RIGGS CLAN

The RiggsD of Turner, Maine, of whom we spoke earlier in connection with Margaret ChandlerD s marriage with George RiggsD, intermarried with four other Deaf families that lived in the Androscoggin cluster of nearby towns. It all began when Sarah WakefieldD and Alfred RiggsD of Jay, Maine, married in 1818. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it all began when the Wakefield progenitor, John, immigrated to Wells, Maine, from Kent, as mentioned earlier. The Riggs progenitor, Edward, came from Essex, England. SarahD and AlfredD Riggs had two Deaf children and seven hearing. Their son GeorgeD, who had a sister, a cousin, an uncle, and a niece Deaf, married Margaret ChandlerD and they had a son, CharlesD, in Leeds. CharlesD married Mahala FifieldD from Deer Isle, Maine; (they overlapped at the American Asylum). MahalaD had a Deaf brother and a Deaf uncle and was a member of the Mission. George RiggsD' sister, Mary AnnD, married a hearing man, Moses Brown, who would die at sea, but they had two Deaf daughters, ElizabethD and HelenD (whose uncle, cousin, and great uncle were Deaf). Both attended the Asylum and HelenD was a member of the Mission, along with her husband, Mellen SaffordD. After Moses Brown died, Mary AnnD married John AndrewsD, a shoemaker in Turner, Maine (he had divorced Mary Jane LordD; his parents were cousins) .5

THE LARRABEE CLAN

The Larrabee family with three Deaf children lived in Bangor, Maine. Bangor is 140 miles from Portland and located on the Penobscot River, about sixty miles from the sea. In the era of the Deaf Larrabees, at midnineteenth century, vast amounts of lumber were floated down the river to waiting ships in the deep harbor, and lumber-related trades flourished. From the mills and farms in the region goods and food traveled to Bangor and in turn Bangor supplied the region with manufactured and other goods from coastal and trans-Atlantic trade. The three children-PhoebeD, JohnD, and CharlesD-attended the American Asylum. Their parents were cousins. The Larrabee progenitor was Stephen, who emigrated from Pau, France, to Jewell's Island, Maine.6 PhoebeD married a schoolmate from the Asylum, Gustavus ConverseD. CharlesD did not marry; JohnD married Rachel Ann ScolesD, a classmate from the Asylum, whose parents were from Canada and lived in Augusta. Rachel AnnD had an unmarried Deaf brother, and a hearing sister who married a Deaf man, Howard MayberryD, from Otisfield. HowardD had two Deaf sisters who married Deaf men.

THE LUDWIG CLAN

The Ludwig clan, like the Larrabee, reminds us that although progenitors of Deaf families were very often from England it was not always the case. Three families from Germany lived in the town of Waldoboro, Maine, in the mid-eighteenth century. The land, quite close to the sea in eastern Maine, had been bought around 1720 by Samuel Waldo. After an initial settlement, Indian attacks caused the settlers to flee. When peace returned, Waldo's son recruited about 1500 immigrants to the village from Germany. No doubt the Ludwigs, Seiders, and Winchenbachs were drawn to intermarry once in the New World by their shared language and traditions. Joseph Ludwig and Margaret Winchenbach married in 1791; they had a Deaf son, JacobD, and a great grandson, ElmerD. They also had a hearing son, Simon, and a hearing daughter, Jane. Simon Ludwig married his cousin, Jane Winchenbach and they had a son, SimonD, who married a Mary SpillmanD. Jane Ludwig married her cousin John Seiders and they had three Deaf children, LuellaD, EmmaD, and DavidD, all of whom attended the American Asylum.?