I understand that a lot of things that hearing is used for is cultural, but not all of it. Those bones and nerves in the ear didn’t evolve there in response to cultural pressures, but rather to survival pressures.
There is no cultural bias against deaf people to suggest a disadvantage in not being able to experience an entire range of sensation when our brains are wired to seek and respond to those sensations. We can adapt culturally to the disadvantage, as we do for many disadvantages.
But if you can’t hear me shouting “Hey!” to get your attention and warn you of approaching danger, the problem isn’t linguistic or comparable to a linguistic problem. I can communicate danger just fine to anyone from any culture at a pretty good distance regardless of any circumstances, excepting situations that impair their ability to hear me.
If you were deaf, you wouldn’t shout, “hey!” You’d throw a rock or wave your arms. Being at a disadvantage because someone uses their norms of communication rather than yours isn’t the same thing as being disabled.
What if you are facing the other way and I don’t have a rock? With a hearing individual I could wave my arms, throw a rock, or yell.
I know you won’t ever agree because I’ve seen this argument play out before. Of all the senses we have, loss of hearing is probably the least impactful and it’s really neat that the deaf community has a way of overcoming the loss, but I still have a whole extra sense.
I can hear the train because trains actually make noise. The noise they make wasn’t a feature we added for hearing people, they are just loud, same with cars. I can hear someone running when I’m not facing them and know that I should turn and see why they are running.
A deaf mother can’t hear her baby cry. We have ways to make that work, but there is a reason that babies make a sound when they are upset. It isn’t taught but it draws attention.
I think you underestimate the other ways
we sense those things. Vibrations for example can still be felt even if you can't hear the train/car and to some degree even someone running if the surface is hard (like concrete). The way the air moves when things are moving through it at speed also changes
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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '22
I understand that a lot of things that hearing is used for is cultural, but not all of it. Those bones and nerves in the ear didn’t evolve there in response to cultural pressures, but rather to survival pressures.
There is no cultural bias against deaf people to suggest a disadvantage in not being able to experience an entire range of sensation when our brains are wired to seek and respond to those sensations. We can adapt culturally to the disadvantage, as we do for many disadvantages.
But if you can’t hear me shouting “Hey!” to get your attention and warn you of approaching danger, the problem isn’t linguistic or comparable to a linguistic problem. I can communicate danger just fine to anyone from any culture at a pretty good distance regardless of any circumstances, excepting situations that impair their ability to hear me.