Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard [Paperback]

Nora Ellen Groce (Author), John W. M. Whiting (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1985 | ISBN-10: 067427041X | ISBN-13: 978-0674270411

From the seventeenth century to the early years of the twentieth, the population of Martha's Vineyard manifested an extremely high rate of profound hereditary deafness. In stark contrast to the experience of most deaf people in our own society, the Vineyarders who were born deaf were so thoroughly integrated into the daily life of the community that they were not seen--and did not see themselves--as handicapped or as a group apart. Deaf people were included in all aspects of life, such as town politics, jobs, church affairs, and social life. How was this possible?

On the Vineyard, hearing and deaf islanders alike grew up speaking sign language. This unique sociolinguistic adaptation meant that the usual barriers to communication between the hearing and the deaf, which so isolate many deaf people today, did not exist.

Editorial Reviews

Review

When is deafness neither handicap nor stigma? When, as this remarkable book recounts, the entire hearing community learns from childhood to be bilingual in conventional speech and sign language, and when the deaf are wholly integrated into the community's social, economic, religious, and recreational life...A vivid ethnography of a hearing community's full acceptance of, and adaptation to, deafness. Groce also constructs a fascinating ethnohistory of this genetic disorder. (Choice )

Beautiful and fascinating...I was so moved by Groce's book that the moment I finished it I jumped in the car, with only a toothbrush, a tape recorder, and a camera--I had to see this enchanted island for myself.
--Oliver Sacks (New York Review of Books )

Brilliantly argued and lively...[Groce's] information consists of the oral history she herself garnered from some 50 witnesses, almost all more than 75 years old, and the documents in print and in manuscript that cross-check and extend their first-hand accounts. Human genetic theory, ethnographic counterparts and a clear-eyed account of social attitudes are the analytic tools that form her brief and telling work...[A] persuasive and compassionate investigation. (Scientific American )

Fascinating...Groce accomplishes much just by pointing out that "handicaps" are something a culture creates, and thus the joint responsibility of us all. That's what places this book squarely within the best tradition of anthropological writing, and makes it both moving and encouraging. (Village Voice )

About the Author

Nora Ellen Groce, a cultural and medical anthropologist, received her doctorate from Brown University. She is currently a Fellow at the Family Development Study, Children's Hospital, Boston, and in the Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School.

Product Details

• Paperback: 169 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067427041X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674270411
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #274,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring and interesting February 9, 2002

By absent_minded_prof

Format:Paperback

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Originally written as an ethnographic study, it is also completely readable for a non-professional popular audience. Basically, it is the story of the islanders of Martha's Vineyard, a large island off the coast of Massachusetts. The islanders originally came from the same 2 or 3 boatloads of colonists from England, by way of Boston and Scituate, from a region in Kent which already seems to have had a high incidence of hereditary deafness. Due to the geographic isolation of the island, recessive genes for deafness, which were already prominent in the original Kentish colonists, came increasingly to the fore. As the proportions of islanders who happened to be deaf gradually increased, what was the islanders' answer? Not shunning the deaf. Far from it. Rather, a tradition arose that EVERYONE on the island, deaf or hearing, simply learned sign language as children!

This book is full of fascinating little anecdotes, about how island society worked to include its deaf members. For example, we learn about families and friends, some deaf and some hearing, who would regularly sit next to each other in church. The hearing members would sign the sermons to their deaf friends. Or, sometimes groups of people who could hear perfectly well might be together, for whatever reason, and they might happen to converse by signing just as much as in spoken English. Everyone spoke both languages.

Some of my favorite parts of the book focus on the benefits of signing. For example, perhaps two neighbors wanted to converse, while being separated by 200 yards of noisy space, made vocally impenetrable by sounds of surf and sea. Whether they were deaf or hearing, they could get out their spyglasses (this was a 19th century whaling community, where spyglasses were in every household) and sign to each other across the distance while viewing each other through the magnification afforded by the spyglasses. One entertaining anecdote tells of two young men, who could hear perfectly well, who would use their signing ability to pick up girls off-island. They would pique the girls' interest in them by signing amongst themselves, and would claim that one of them was deaf. After they had secured the girls' interest, they would put on a lengthy, well-practiced charade of deafness to keep the gils curious about them. Do they ever let on that they can really hear? You'll have to read the book to find out! Bwa ha ha haaaa ( that's the sound of an evil laugh).

Those are a few minor anecdotes. The whole book is packed with stories like that, and it's endlessly amazing. The last couple of chapters make excellent, general points about the human issues raised in the book, and about how we as a society think about the "handicapped" -- perhaps, as Dr. Groce points out, we should not use the term in the first place.

Anyway, I'm really pleased to call attention to this book. I wish it were more widely known. If you're reading this because you linked to my reviewer's page from my review of "Jeepers Creepers," or something at a similar level, then, well, I'm just happy you're reading about this valuable story as well as "Jeepers Creepers." Two thumbs up.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful! December 5, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language is a wonderful look at the Deaf population on Martha's Vineyard and the extent to which it was integrated with the Hearing community. Groce's research is supurb and she draws interesting and relevant conclusions. I highly recommend this book to anyone studying ASL/Deaf Studies or someone who is just interested in the topic.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting look at a unique deaf cultue May 5, 2003

By Heather

Format:Paperback

"Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language" is a look at the effect of a large deaf population on Martha's Vineyard. Though a dry read at times, this book gives an interesting look at how for once in the history of deaf culture the *hearing* adapted for the deaf instead of vice versa. While most people might assume that the large deaf population would force a hefty amount of deaf people to adapt to hearing life, the opposite was actually true; the brilliance of Martha's Vineyard was that nearly all hearing people knew sign language to some degree.

The book analyses cultural impact of the large deaf population within the Vineyard's communities, which was biologically caused by the genetic predisposition for deafness. The book, largely written like an anthropological study, focuses on both physical and cultural aspect of the deafness in the communities. However, the most interesting implications within the book are those discussing deaf and hearing interrelations.