「Anthropology through the Experience of the Physical Body 」There's nothing like holding the real book for the first time...

Anthropology through the Experience of the Physical Body
Editors: Kaori Fushiki, Ryoko Sakurada (2023)

Book information: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-5724-8

See also: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2023/12/new-book-announcement-long-time-in.html

Chapter 4, p. 42-60

The Embodiment of the Deaf in Japan: A Set of Heuristic Models for Identity, Belonging and Sign Language Use

Steven C. Fedorowicz

Abstract: This chapter is an ethnographic and linguistic exploration of deaf people in Japan organised around Mark Johnson’s (2007) philosophy of embodied meaning where meaning and worldview are created, interpreted and expressed through the body and bodily interactions. The application of this holistic approach to the body treats deafness as a condition that affects human behaviour rather than a deficiency/impairment. The situations of deaf people in Japan, including academic models, social welfare policies and Deaf/deaf politics, are organised and presented through the use of Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1990) architectonics. The language use of Japanese deaf people, especially their preferred language of Japanese Sign Language (JSL), is contextualized through the use of David F. Armstrong et al.’s (1995) gestural approach to communication. How do deaf people in Japan deal with limits—or challenges—of communication with hearing people and among themselves? The chapter concludes that for deaf people, the body is a medium they use to create text and discourse through the performance of sign language, ultimately displaying a perceived notion of Deaf identity.

Keywords: Deaf/deaf, Japanese Sign Language, Ethnography, Embodiment, Gestural linguistics, Architectonics