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<DIV>Hi, the only theme I recognise is discussion about the "developmental cycle of sign languages", where various different views have been expressed and there is some current debate. Other than that, I don't think I have seen any of these other expressions in "recent academic descriptions" in sign linguistics. In fact, recent academic descriptions are full of statements to the contrary, as to the importance of these sign languages. </DIV>
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<DIV>I wonder if there are other "academic descriptions" from people outside sign linguistics that he could be referring to? Or maybe in Spanish-speaking academia, as much of his work has been in Central America? Otherwise this is simply a mis-representation.</DIV>
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<DIV>Ulrike</DIV>
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<DIV>Prof. Ulrike Zeshan<BR>Director, International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies<BR>Livesey House, LH212<BR>University of Central Lancashire<BR>Preston PR12HE, UK<BR>uzeshan@uclan.ac.uk<BR>Ph. +44-1772-893104</DIV>
<DIV>Fax +44-1772-894933<BR></DIV><BR><BR>>>> "Adam Schembri" <A.Schembri@LATROBE.EDU.AU> 14/03/2011 00:44 >>><BR></DIV>
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<DIV>I'm not sure that many (anyone?) in the field of village sign language linguistics refers to these languages as 'primitive', but this is a very important workshop nonetheless.</DIV>
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<DIV>Adam</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">-- <BR></SPAN><FONT size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Associate Professor Adam Schembri<BR>Director, National Institute for Deaf Studies and Sign Language<BR>La Trobe University | Melbourne (Bundoora) | Victoria | 3086 | Australia<BR>Tel: +61 3 9479 2887 | Fax: +61 3 9479 3074 | www.latrobe.edu.au/nids<BR></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT size=2 face=Tahoma><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold" lang=EN-US>From:</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT size=2 face=Tahoma><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang=EN-US> Erich Fox Tree [<A href="mailto:efoxtree@hamilton.edu">mailto:efoxtree@hamilton.edu</A>] <BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Friday, 11 March 2011 3:37 AM<BR></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=MsoNormal align=center><B><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Call for Papers </SPAN></FONT></B><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">for the American Anthropological Association (AAA) meetings in<B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"> </SPAN></B></SPAN></FONT><ST1:PLACE w:st="on"><ST1:CITY w:st="on"><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Montreal</SPAN></FONT></ST1:CITY><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">, <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">Canada</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION></SPAN></FONT></ST1:PLACE><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">,</SPAN></FONT><B><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold"> </SPAN></FONT></B><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">November 16-20, 2011:</SPAN></FONT><O:P></O:P></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=MsoNormal align=center><B><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">DECOLONIZING INDIGENOUS AND VILLAGE SIGN LANGUAGES </SPAN></FONT></B><O:P></O:P></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=MsoNormal align=center><B><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">BY SEEING THE SILENT</SPAN></FONT></B><O:P></O:P></P>
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<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 36pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"> “Immature,” “inchoate,” “less complex,” “limited in range,” “primitive,” “of peripheral importance,” or at a lower stage in the “normal” developmental cycle of sign languages: Recent academic descriptions of the sign languages of indigenous groups or of small, bimodally-bilingual rural communities with high incidences of deafness, are distressingly reminiscent of missionary-linguists’ characterizations of the spoken vernaculars of colonized Natives centuries ago. What similar colonial relationships do the modern claims encode?</SPAN></FONT><O:P></O:P></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 36pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"> Since Stokoe (1960) proved that American Sign Language, ASL, was a real language, with a systematic structure and grammar, scholarship has contested the general colonization of the Deaf by challenging claims that signers are intellectually deprived or socially immature. It has also invigorated efforts to gain recognition and support for national sign languages, and thereby helped change patronizing oralist models of education for many deaf people not only in the <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">USA</ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION>, but in other industrialized countries. </SPAN></FONT><O:P></O:P></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 36pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"> Yet the indigenous and village sign languages that constitute much of the diversity of the world’s natural sign languages have not enjoyed important advances made by national sign languages. They face intensifying marginalization, domination, and endangerment, and scholars have scarcely studied their plight, let alone their structures and usage. Indigenous and village sign languages are crucial not only for scientific and humanistic understanding of human language (Nonaka 2003), but for issues of linguistic, indigenous, and human rights, especially as their predicament may be driven not only by hearing hegemonies, but also by those of national sign languages. </SPAN></FONT><O:P></O:P></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 36pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">This panel brings together established and new cultural scholars to examine this double-colonialism ofindigenous and village sign languages: colonization both AS SIGN LANGUAGES and BY SIGN LANGUAGES. Case studies question how advancements by official and aspiring national sign languages sometimes come at the expense of other sign language. They ask how scholarly claims of isolation, minority status, and recent origin reduce the legitimacy of indigenous and village sign communities. What do new theories about the development of sign languages mean for anthropological ideals of cultural survival and relativism? Does advocacy for national sign languages replicate nationalists’ imagining of communities around single spoken vernaculars? Can sign languages persist without Deaf schools, modern technologies, and video capitalism? How does denial of existence, complexity, and rights, or premature classification as “minority” languages help suppress linguistic, ethnic, and cultural diversity? Does promotion of “modern” features, such as signed alphabets, create a hierarchy of sign codes, while aiding standardization of <I><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">spoken</SPAN></I> languages? In short, how do hearing authorities and promoters of national (or international) sign languages collaborate to “silence” indigenous and village ones?</SPAN></FONT><O:P></O:P></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 36pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"> Through its focus on the invisible “voices” of indigenous and village signers, this panel aims to help them. Diverse case studies from North America, to Asia, Africa and <ST1:PLACE w:st="on">Mesoamerica</ST1:PLACE> advocate more intense study of indigenous and village sign languages. Going beyond description of linguistic contact, competition, and conflict, papers support increased collaboration between advocates of national sign languages and indigenous or village signers to consider how law, scholarship, and economic practices might better empower both communities. </SPAN></FONT><O:P></O:P></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">TO HAVE YOUR PAPER CONSIDERED FOR THIS PANEL, contact Dr. Erich Fox Tree (</SPAN></FONT><A href="mailto:efoxtree@hamilton.edu"><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">efoxtree@hamilton.edu</SPAN></FONT></A><FONT size=2 face=Times><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Times; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">). </SPAN></FONT><O:P></O:P></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 12pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>-- <BR>Prof. Erich Fox Tree<BR>Department of Religious Studies<BR><ST1:PLACE w:st="on"><ST1:PLACENAME w:st="on">Hamilton</ST1:PLACENAME> <ST1:PLACETYPE w:st="on">College</ST1:PLACETYPE></ST1:PLACE><BR><ST1:STREET w:st="on"><ST1:ADDRESS w:st="on">198 College Hill Road</ST1:ADDRESS></ST1:STREET><BR><ST1:PLACE w:st="on"><ST1:CITY w:st="on">Clinton</ST1:CITY> <ST1:STATE w:st="on">NY</ST1:STATE>, <ST1:POSTALCODE w:st="on">13323</ST1:POSTALCODE></ST1:PLACE><O:P></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></O:SMARTTAGTYPE></O:SMARTTAGTYPE></O:SMARTTAGTYPE></O:SMARTTAGTYPE></O:SMARTTAGTYPE></O:SMARTTAGTYPE></O:SMARTTAGTYPE></O:SMARTTAGTYPE></O:SMARTTAGTYPE></O:SMARTTAGTYPE></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></SPAN></BODY></HTML>