Talking Hands: Signing in an Israeli Village

Margalit Fox, a New York Times reporter trained as a linguist, is the only Western journalist to have set foot in the remarkable Bedouin community in Israel where there is an unusually high rate of deafness. Margalit’s book Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals about the Mind (2007) is the outcome of her three-day immersion visit to the village with expert sign linguists. To be allowed into the village as an observer, Margalit had some background in American Sign Language but was under no circumstances to “speak” to anyone during the three days. She was allowed to document but not allowed to contaminate the pure sign language that had evolved in the previous 70 years into a third-generation language. Margalit explored the visit with an analysis of the unique syntactic sign language which was very different from the Israeli Sign Language (ISL), the sign language of the country.

Of Al-Sayyid’s 3,500 residents, about one in 25 is deaf—4% of the population! In Israel and the United States, the incidence of deafness in the general population is about 0.1 percent or one in a 1,000! Unlike in those areas, in Al-Sayyid there is no stigma against being deaf, and because of the high rate of deafness, and because of the remoteness of the village, the rest of the village sees deafness as normal and the majority of hearing villagers are bilingual, signing their local sign language while also speaking Hebrew.

Seventy years ago the first deaf child was born to the community and soon followed by nine more. In this first cohort of deaf children sprouted the pidgin sign which blossomed into the highly communicative local sign language three generations later. However, in the present generation the young deaf children are bussed to a neighboring village to be educated with Israeli Sign Language and linguists are madly trying to document the local sign language that is now  being infiltrated with more and more ISL. Thus, Margalit’s visit with linguists to Al-Sayyid.

Speakers and signers work side by side with almost no job being exclusive for either a speaker or a signer. In fact, the whole village has evolved into a speaking-signing village, but this is not new. From the early 1700s to mid-1900s Martha’s Vineyard had two up-island towns (West Tisbury and Chilmark) where the villagers had so intermarried that their incidences of deafness was one in 49 in Tisbury and one in 25 in Chilmark, just as it is in Al-Sayyid. Also like in Al-Sayyid, signing among all of the townspeople had evolved but was very difficult if not impossible for signing outsiders to understand. Apparently and unique to signing in the United States, Martha’s Vineyard sign language evolved from British Sign Language as 40% of the signs were found to have British cognates while only 22% had overlap with ASL. Martha’s Vineyard sign language was active for about 250 years until islanders started marrying off-islanders, diluting the recessive deaf gene. No deaf signers from Martha’s Vineyard are alive today. Similarly, the demise of the local sign language at Al-Sayyid is expected to rapidly decline, also to marriages outside of the village and with the more globalized education of bussing the young to broader educational opportunities outside of the Al-Sayyid community.

Interesting Points Related to Signing Noted by Margarit Fox

• Al-Sayyid sign language has not evolved differently because of differences related to gender. However, sign language for Dublin’s deaf children was introduced in the mid 1800s by two Dominican nuns but taught in two gender isolated institutions—St. Mary’s School for Deaf Girls and St. Joseph’s School for Deaf Boys. The schools rarely mixed and thus their language evolved radically differently. However, the deaf girls frequently married the deaf boys with the girls learning the dialect of their husbands, making them bilingual Irish Sign Language users. Husbands rarely deigned to learn the dialect of the women as it was viewed as an inferior dialect. With children using the “male” dialect for schooling and interactions, the women’s dialect gradually disappeared.

• In 1917 Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc opened the Connecticut Asylum for teaching the French version of sign language (the British refused to teach Gallaudet).

• Nicaragua had no widespread education for the deaf until the 1970s. In 1977 a small 50-pupil school was opened and this cohort brought their many home-signs which started a more universal Nicaraguan sign language. The first cohort of students never really attained fluency but they did establish a mean of communication, much like a pidgin language. The second cohort came in 1983 and attached grammar, fluency and syntax to the pidgin, creating a Creole. In the space of just a few years the full-blown Nicaraguan Sign Language had evolved.

• American Sign Language (and perhaps Al-Sayyid Sign Language) evolved into signs for complex words on seemingly an infinite rage and nuance, from compounds to constellations of inflections. As one researchers states, “The existence of such elaborate formal inflectional devices clearly establishes ASL as one of the inflecting languages of the world, like Latin, Russian, and Navajo.”

• Spoonerisms are the reversal of two speech sounds, often with a humorous effect, and were made famous by the Oxford don, Reverend William A. Spooner (1844-1930). Examples:

“the queer old dean”
“noble tons of soil”
“You have hissed all my mystery lecture. I saw you fight a liar in the back quad; in fact, you have tasted the whole worm.” (said to reprimand a student)

Or others not attributed to Spooner:

“Don’t throw your cigarette down, there’s a hire fazard.”
“Who am I to sneeze at a flee runch?”
“We’re having a rot post for dinner.”
“fash and tickle”
“Wing’s babliography”

• Linguists study slips of the tongue to reveal info about language—language structure, language acquisition and historical language change. For signers, slips of the hand can similarly reveal the structure and organization of language.

• Sign language is of “vertical” construction. People can speak faster than they can sign, with the ASL signers producing about two signs per second to typical speakers of English saying about four words per second. However, sign language has “vertical” construction which allows words to be pluralized by a shift in the hand or questions asked by the tilt of the head. In fact, these subtle sign cues make signing easier comparable to spoken English.

• The most commonly word order for spoken languages in the world is SOV, e.g. Japanese and Korean. The local languages of Al-Sayyid are Arabic, a SVO (Standard Arabic is VSO) and Hebrew, also SVO. Israeli Sign Language, however, is relatively free, but the most common orders are SVO and OSV. The local sign language wasn’t specified, but it is modality-driven, has WH-questions tagged on the end, and is clearly a structure consistent language. Imagine that--a language evolving in a mere 70 years!

Monster: An Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member

Kody Scott, born in 1963 and raised in South Central Los Angeles, was initiated as Crip at the age of 11. Before his teen years were gone, he had risen in Crip ranks to the status of Ghetto Star (ghetto celebrity). When he was 13, while robbing a man he was accidentally hit in the face by the victim. When the man was on the flee, he tripped and was then pinned in place while Kody in retaliation pounded and stomped him, then abandoned his disfigured body in an alley. The man was taken to a hospital where Kody last heard he had fallen into a coma. The police told bystanders that the person responsible for this was a "monster", and the name stuck. All Crips and all Bloods received some kind of nickname and 'Kody', already being a cool name, was then prefaced by Monster and was soon the moniker replacement for Kody.

published in 1993

When Monster was just joining the Crips, the war on the L.A. streets had only been going on about nine years, and was waged between the Crips and the Bloods. But as the nation of the Crips was growing, soon Crips were not just 75 or so in a set, but would later be a thousand deep. There were many sets, and sets in turns were broken down by streets, so literally there developed a Crip street gang on every street, and the Crip friends that Monster hung out with in his very early years as a gangster later became his mortal enemies as Crips started fighting other Crip gangs, rather than just ganging up on the Bloods. Initially the worst enemies were Crip and Blood sets, but by the late 1980s Crips were the number-one killers of Crips. In fact, as Monster Kody Scott writes his autobiography, he later states that in a 12-year period (1980-1993 approximately - he published his book in 1993) more Crips were killed in that time than Crips killed by Bloods in the entire 22 years of the war (1971?-1993).

By the time Monster was 15, he had already killed several, bashed in several and overall made quite a name for himself. Then in a drunken state, he smashed up 15 cars before he was captured and charged with assault and grand theft, receiving 9 months in camp. He had already been to the Hall, now he was going to be sent to the Camp, a tougher place to survive. Youth Authority, the next level for incarcerating adolescents under 18, would be next, followed by prison ... each sentence become longer and with harder convictions. Then of course there are many types of prison, L.A. country jail, Folsom prison, Chino state prison (with its Deep Seg or Deep Segregation unit), San Quentin, (100 years older than Chino and having double- and triple-max units). Monster experienced them all. Monster deserved them all. He makes no apologies. Monster simply states that once you're a Crip, you have to give attention to the 'hood, avenging disrespect from other gangs (or even within gang), protecting your family and protecting yourself. And that was why you joined a gang, to protect yourself. It seemed that every time he got out of youth camp or later prison, he would have a "strap", a gun, and would go out on a shooting spree before being home a full day. He had a name to keep up in the early days, and he had to give paybacks as a good and well-connected Crip should.

However, when he was 30 and in Chino, he started realizing that Crip on Crip and killing Crip was going nowhere. He met someone from the CCO, the Consolidated Crip Organization, which had a 'constitution', and the fundamental beliefs in respecting one's self (not calling one's self a nigga, not dissing one's family especially one's mother or sister, developing language of respect, and becoming educated to think logically for one's self and to make goals for one's self and the Crips as a whole).  The Constitution was new and it held promises to questions Monster had about where the Crips were taking the war -- basically, nowhere but the grave. He joined and then worked on creating a unified goal for the Crips, not to fight against one another but for a united cause.

In 1987 the Consolidated Crip Organization was disbanded. It was going nowhere except creating new faces to an old war. By this time Monster threw his lot in totally with the New Afkrikan Independence Movement. Even before going to San Quentin maximum security prison he had learned about the new movement but it was at San Quentin where he joined and was given his new name, Sanyika Shakur.

Sanyika Shakur was paroled in 1988, got his first job and tried to become a family man with a goal and to live more peaceably on the streets. When he got out of prison after being in for 4 1/2 years, he returned to mother's home and was appalled at the burnt down buildings around, the squallor, the homeless, and graffiti street gangs painted but he could no longer interpret as new gangs had been created since he had been imprisoned. This shock at his former reality confirmed that change was needed in his 'hood and that he could lead some members of his 'hood to leave their Crip-killing-gangs and realign themselves as New Afrikans revolutionaries with a purpose like himself.

Sanyika tried to live a more moral life, one showing respect for himself and also as a role model for his family. However, in 1991 he was captured by L.A.P.D. for assault and grand theft auto, charges that "stemmed from a healthy beating [he] had given a crack dealer who had refused to stop selling his product on [Sanyika's] corner." Sanyika then confiscated the dealer's van which, along with the beating, earned Sanyika another seven years in a maximum security prison. Sanyikda doesn't apologize, he has no regrets, but says "When the police and other government agencies don't seem to care about what is going on in our communities, then those of us who live in them must take responsibility for their protection and management."

___________________________________________

I found this book brutal but eye-opening as to the motivation of street gangs. It is one thing to sit in my white middle-class comfort and judge behavior as being morally right or morally wrong based on my genteel lifestyle and surroundings and totally another to see what is maybe not morally right but justifiably right when in a different context. As Sanyika Shakur states near the end of his autobiography, his early days in the Crips was without any real purpose except to belong to something big and tough and earn a reputation, but ultimately he realized there was no real purpose for all the killings, especially when the war became less Crip-on-Blood and more Crip-on-Crip. In his youth he didn't realize there was no real goal for the Crips in the killings. He didn't recognize the killings he and his tribe accomplished was just feeding an insatiably thirsty circle of action of purposeless killing.

The insights shared by Sanyika Shakur on the structure of the gang, the tribalism attitudes and shared street slang and signs connoting membership, and the code of conduct which was very strict are well documented. Living proximal to or condoning such a brutal live-or-die lifestyle alters a person. This is not my reality, but I am glad for Sanyika's insights to the reality of the New Afrikans and the people in the inner L.A. poverty zones so, as an educator and as an anthropologist, I can be more understanding of the educational and social needs I can endeavor to meet in my classroom. Being aware of the educational challenges caused by the social environment gives me a better understanding of how to potentially develop ways / a program / tools to assist youth in their learning process.

In fact, I think that educators, educational counselors, psychologists, anthropologists and sociologists should have this book on their reading list. The book gives a detailed psychological study of an L.A. gang member and discusses points of race, status, economics, prejudices, law interpretation ... While I am in no way connected or even familiar with gangs, I felt this book doesn't justify gangs but explains the motivations to belong to one and perform as a gang member. A very insightful book that made me less judgmental of brutal street behavior but more knowledgeable about why that brutality exists and in what form and by whom, almost always for a gang-viewed "logical" reason.

Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Weatherford, Jack. Ghengis Khan and the making of the modern world.  xxxv, 312 pp., illus., bibliogr. New York: Crown Publishers, 2004. $25.00 (hard), $14.95 (paper)

(book review - by Cheryl Magnant)

This historical ethnography of the Mongol people as hunters growing into the powerful nation of destroyers, conquerors and shapers of history under the leadership of Ghengis Khan is a carefully researched piece of scholarship divided historically into three parts.  For introduction, the author relates his personal research endeavors in the Mongolian steppes and gives a broad overview of how Mongols are perceived in the present age and how and from where commonly known perceptions and misconceptions of the Mongols have arisen.  The first part of the narrative tells of Ghengis Khan’s birth in 1162, his rise to power and his charisma as a leader and unifier of the steppe tribes into a founded nation in 1206, and then recounts many of his successes at expansionism until his death over twenty years later. The second part relates the further expansions of his immediate heirs and their entering the Mongol World War, which lasted five decades until his grandsons went to war with one another; the war was the beginning of the end of the great nation which ruled nearly half of the world from the Mongol steppes north to the dense forests of Russia, south to Vietnam and westward to the edges of modern western Europe, and deeply southward into India. The third part examines Mongolia’s century of peace and the effects the Global Awakening had on modern society in terms of political, commercial and military institutions. 

 

Following the three narratives is an epilogue giving a culturally emotional tribute to a newly discovered site located by the author and his scholarly companions; it is the location of Ghengis Khan’s wife’s kidnapping, the pivotal event which ignited Ghengis Khan into ingeniously changing a tribe into a nation.  Extensive chapter notes provide cross-referencing in English, when available, and other languages if not; all referenced foreign scripts have been Anglicized.  For Anglicizations within the narrative, Jack Weatherford provides a note on transliteration of the Mongol language and a glossary of Mongolian names and places appearing in the text.  His selected biography is replete with no less than one hundred and ninety-five references, followed by acknowledgments to the diversity of people in Mongolia, Russia, China and the United States, ranging from herders to parliament members, who assisted him in his years of research.  Throughout the ethnography, intermittent drawings depicting historical moments reflective of Mongolian art and culture appear by Dr. S. Badral of Chinggis Khaan University.  Finally, a several-paged index culminates this ethnography. 

Jack Weatherford’s premise in writing Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World is that through the influence of Ghengis Khan, contrary to popular belief, the world was not only threatened by his warring ingeniousness and revolutionary tactics but was also positively transformed.  Jack Weatherford writes about the ancient struggle between the hunter and the herder and portrays the triumph of the hunter in a revisionist history of Ghengis Khan reshaping civilization worldwide by conquering peoples but not destroying cultures.  Ironically, Ghengis Khan, an illiterate hunter who became Great Khan in his early forties, surrounded himself with scholars and skilled artisans of the conquered peoples and amalgamated their knowledge into his growing Mongol kingdom; thus, through his military thrusts primarily west and southward, he redistributed his newly gained knowledge and learned skills, and as a result, impacted world history by reshaping literature, language, art, music, erudition itself, methods of war, politics and diplomacy, commerce, philosophies, and, in fact, he was the first conqueror and ruler to successfully practice religious tolerance.  Ghengis Khan was a humanitarian who abolished torture, avidly sought out new technologies and forms of expertise, and as Great Khan, head of the Mongols, was representative architect of history.  His four male offspring were the dynasty founders of the Golden Horde in Russia, the Moghul Empire in India, the Ilkhanate in Persia and Iraq, and the Yuan Dynasty in China.  His blood legacy lasted for seven hundred thirty-one years until the last descendent, Alim Khan, was deposed as emir of Bukhara.  Yet, the legacy he gave the world was the foundation of modern civilization:  international paper currency, a postal system, technologies such as printing, the compass and abacus, as well as the spread of merchandises.  Namely, the legacy he bestowed on civilization was the beginning of the homogenization of our present global village.

 

Mediaeval Commerce Asia - source

Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World is a theoretical narrative of historical events which took place eight centuries previous.  Extensive passage of time and translation concerns of The Secret History of the Mongol raise some questions as to the exactness of the events reconstructed in this ethnology, especially as The Secret History of the Mogols was written for the royal Mongol family significantly after Ghengis Khan’s death.  Over a period of five years Jack Weatherford researched and took cultural journeys through the “Great Taboo,” Ghengis Khan’s homeland and forbidden burial site.  Through careful readings of the more than a dozen language translations of The Secret History of the Mongols, Jack Weatherford, self-confessed as lacking proficiency in the Mongol language, along with two renowned Mongolian scholars, Professor Kh. Lkhagvasuren, archeologist, and Professor O. Sukhbaater, geographer, retraced the steps of Ghengis Khan in the same inclement weather as was presented in The Secret History of the Mongols.  Vast discrepancies between the translations became apparent as well as the difficulty in deciphering the context of relocating non-geographically named sites.  Other names appear to be in code or allude to places and events of common knowledge at the time but about which have been lost in the intervening centuries.  Due to harsh weather, the steppes are ever-changing and topographical landmarks have been erased or defaced, making positive identification difficult.  Transliterations of names into English alone also inhibit the preciseness demanded of empirical research; however, Jack Weatherford presents several names of controversial spelling and, explaining his choice in selecting one, systematically uses it throughout his narrative. 

 

The Secret History of the Mongols is a cultural tool, describing even the weepings of the Great Khan; nevertheless, there exists one cultural aspect that leaves gaps in the understanding of peoples of non-Mongolian backgrounds:  the topic of death, which is still not culturally discussed in Mongolia today.  As a result, a mystical vagueness surrounds the death and burial of Ghengis Khan, and no matter how scholarly or technical the searching may become, the steppes will never bring to light his disguised-by-trampling burial site.  Jack Weatherford, already holding a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, yet, owing to his five years of extensive research with the steppe scholars and an additional year of literary research on Mongolia at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota where he is the Dewitt Wallace Professor, was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from the Chinggis Khaan College in Mongolia for his scholarly research on Mongolia and Ghengis Khan.  His most recent ethnography, Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, is imbued with Jack Weatherford’s insightful steppe-life cultural experiences which clarify presupposed cultural knowledge in the recently corrected and translated The History of the Mongols: The Life and Times of Chinggis Khan (2001) by Urgunge Onon.  The books counterbalance each other.  The History of the Mongols focuses on the past and is a cultural translation from the original Uighur script into English, whereas Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World not only explores Mongolia’s ancient history but also ties in the ancient past with the modern present. 

 

Cheryl Magnant