208 Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning
For us, the term culture allowed us to move away from what we and our
colleagues believed was a debilitating description of deaf people as having
specific behaviors or ideas about themselves or others that were the conse-
quences of not being able to hear.... We argued instead that being Deaf,
the specific and particular way of being, was shaped powerfully by shared
histories. (p. 3)As a discipline, anthropology has strived to document and seek insight into the
diverse ways in which human beings, communities, and societies have adapted
to various and dynamic circumstances. Documenting diverse perspectives and
gaining insight into learning processes and human development have been
important for anthropological understanding. Concentrating on the topics of
empowerment and emancipation, I have studied the unique ways in which deaf
individuals and deaf communities across the world have developed diverse and
alternative pathways that have allowed them to survive, and even to flourish. I
have documented an emancipatory process of deaf awakening that is happen-
ing in deaf individuals and deaf communities around the globe—a process of
transformation and consciousness-raising linked to sign languages, deaf cul-
tural practices, visually oriented learning practices, and deaf people’s strengths
and abilities.
Deaf leaders and role models are crucial in this process, as are supportive hearing
people who can be partners in this emancipation. One outcome of this process is
that deaf people are no longer willing to accept an unequal or inferior position and
have started to advocate for themselves and their peers; they are striving to achieve
their full potential. This deaf awakening is fostering a state of deaf flourishing, a
phenomenon in which diversity and universality are both present. My cross-cultural
comparative research examines and documents where deaf flourishing occurs and
where—and how—it can flower most richly.
Just like awakening, the term flourishing is a metaphor used by deaf people and
deaf communities; similar terms referring to the phenomenon are development and
growth (for further discussion of these metaphors and concepts, see Chapter 8). For
a definition of flourishing, I refer to the anthropological view on well-being, as defined
by Mathews and Izquierdo in their book Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in Anthropo-
logical Perspective (2010):
Well-being is an optimal state for an individual, community, society, and the
world as a whole. It is conceived of, expressed, and experienced in different
ways by different individuals and within the cultural contexts of different soci-
eties: Different societies may have distinctly different culturally shaped visions
of well-being.
Nonetheless, well-being bears a degree of commonality due to our common
humanity and interrelatedness over space and time. Well-being is experienced
by individuals—its essential focus lies within individual subjectivity—but it
may be considered and compared interpersonally and interculturally, since
all individuals live within particular worlds of others, and all societies live in a
common world at large. (p. 5)