Blogs

https://youtu.be/s1-StAlw3aE

Context: I have only had two meetings thus far on iTalki with different instructors each time, neither of which are themselves deaf. Therefore, the information provided in this post is from a secondary source I found in my research on the topic rather than via interview. 

This video is about the history of a sign language in the continental US other than standard American Sign Language in use today. The interview focuses on Plans Sign Language or Hand Speak in the Midwest. Hand Speak was a lingua franca used among Indigenous Americans in the Midwest prior to colonization. Several known signs were lost over time as the settlers colonized their land and prevented the passing on of Native knowledge Today, there are a limited number of fluent signers, and they fill the gaps in their lexicon with ASL. 

I think it is very important that this knowledge is preserved for the next generation in order to revive the culture threatened by US imperialism. It is also important to teach hearing and deaf signers alike the history of sign languages in America. Along with common home signs, there are at least four recognized dialects of ASL: American Sign Language, Black American Sign Language, Martha's Vinyard Sign Language, and Plains Sign Language. Each of these languages developed from a community's unique intersectional struggles, particularly with otism and race. 

Furthermore, I feel that many people come into ASL classrooms expecting to learn a universal sign language, the deaf equivalent of Esperanto. This is simply not the case. Just as languages developed around the world over thousands of years, so have ways to communicate between deaf and hearing individuals. Yes, the standarization of various sign languages is a recent developement closing the gap between many signing communities, however sign language in the US is still totally different from sign language British Isles even though both countries have English as the dominant language! In fact, someone who knows ASL would likely have an easier time understanding LSF (French Sign Language) because that was the basis for developing ASL.

The topic for my cultural project was "Caste and Health in India."  Specifically, I studied the role of caste in influencing the health of Dalit communities in India.  I became interested in this topic because of my experiences in India and seeing first-hand the ways in which caste continues to shape access to quality healthcare, particularly for women in Dalit communities -- who must not only overcome obstacles presented by caste and class, but also obstacles related to gender.  It is astounding to me that a system like this continues to persist, even after it has officially been abolished-- but it is still present and is still strongly influenced by culture (and the effects of the system continue to affect Indian culture as well by further reinforcing the "cycle" of the caste system).  Thus, by doing this project, I began to see culture as very multidimensional and ever-changing, as we have discussed in MLC 105. 

I started out by first connecting caste & health to my learning goals.  Since I am interested in global health & human rights and specifically hope to practice medicine in some context in India, I wanted to learn Hindi as a tool to communicate in a medical/public health setting.  Maternal health in particular would be interesting because it involves the sensitive topics of gender, caste, and class, and it also provided me with the opportunity to learn very multifaceted vocabulary.  I then spoke about the importance of this topic and put caste into a more personal context (imagine your life being defined by 1 word -  the caste into which you were born).  I then provided more background information about the religious context of caste and what the 4 castes + "outcasts" were.

I then transitioned into discussing perspectives of caste in contemporary Indian culture.  Although caste was abolished in 1950, there are still MANY incidents in which Dalits are ignored, insulted, banned, or shunned, etc.  I then used case studies (news articles from Feb/March 2012) and photographs to discuss this issue.  I then spoke about Dalit women, who face a triple burden of caste, class, and gender.  In this context, I spoke about how health is shaped by sociocultural and socioeconomic influences -- which can be seen through MMR (maternal mortality ratios) statistics in different countries.  In US, the MMR = 13 (13/100,000 women die in childbirth).  But in India, the MMR = 254, and for Dalit women, the MMR = 560 (560/100,000 women die in childbirth), which is extremely high. I then talked about the cultural reasons relating to health that could account for these high MMR statistics.  I also included a Public Service Announcement relating to maternal health that students could watch on their own time -- available here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FotGYKjHw50 .  I ended by reflecting on what I had learned from this cultural presentation, and also includeda list of vocab that I learned while creating this cultural presentation.

Here is my cultural presentation (I had to convert the PowerPoint file into a PDF):  PDF version of Cultural Presentation

Here is a great video (in Hindi) related to Dalit inequality that I watched to learn more about these issues: Dalit Reality - Health in Bihar

Here is the vocabulary I learned and utilized to further my knowledge about the issues of caste and health in India: