于无声处的田野体验:文化人类学视角中的上海聋人手语实践

Seeing Voices in a Silent World: A Cultural Ethnographic Study of Linguistic Practices in Shanghai’ s Deaf Community

本文借鉴文化人类学的视角,采用以参与式观察为核心的田野研究手段,对上海地区某聋人群体在日常生活中使用手语表达的方式和策略,进行细致缜密的考察和记录。在此基础上,我们力图将聋人在实践中使用的手语与官方标准手语进行比对分析,并初步总结和分析两套语言交流体系之间的歧异。针对国家版手语以标准化和专业化为目标的充满善意的社会工程在现实运用语境中所遭遇的尴尬情形,本研究尝试性提出以田野体验为基准的微型民族志文本,以期弥补聋人这一＂特殊群体＂在社会科学文献中＂缺席＂与＂失声＂的缺憾。同时本文以体现聋人调适性智慧的＂符号转换＂策略为着眼点,进一步探讨手语实践模式对于丰富文化多样性与促进转型期差异人群间和谐相处和交往的意义和价值。

Based on participant observation and in-depth field interview,this thesis explores the multiple local social worlds inhabited by Shanghai’s deaf people,an extremely diverse group of individuals officially labeled as the disabled people with special needs. Our field findingssuggest the existence of ahuge discrepancy between two radically different systems of communication: the officially standardized sign language and a far more localized,colloquial form of gestures and paralanguage among the deaf people. The study indicates the vital importance of local know ledge in the policy- making process,especially if it is concerned with addressing the actual needs and welfare of this disadvantaged group. Deeper understanding of the multi- layered meanings of"being deaf"in contemporary Shanghai is needed in the hope that concrete actions will be taken to help empower the deaf and eliminate the social stigma attached to them.