'The same'?

Anthropology has striking resemblances with the work detectives do, now and then. In AdaSL (Adamorobe sign language) there’s a very specific terminology for different kinds of fish preparations, different vegetables and crops, a complicated system for communicating about money etc. But for family ties the terminology is quite simple. The sign for ‘the same (as the opposite of ‘different’/’difference’)’, ‘sister/brother’, ‘friend’ and ‘cousin (m/f)/aunt/uncle’ is one and the same sign: two fingers you turn around and shake from left to right. It didn’t take me long to figure out the first three meanings, but that that particular sign also meant ‘cousin (m/f)/aunt/uncle’ only became clear to me after a week of confusion. What a huge revelation it was, and at the same time it was quite discouraging :-)

Also take into consideration that most deaf people cannot write their name (even today not all deaf/hearing children of the village go to school yet) and even if I get a hold of names from a hearing literate person, it’s not possible to derive family ties from them, because people here seem to have two first names (and not even always the same ones) and no surname (or don’t use it?). Several hearing people who can write, note down names the way they sound, which can vary every single time, meaning that the name Asabea can also be Esabia for example. Sum up the fact that it seems fairly normal here to divorce and re-marry, which makes that a large number of people already have been married a few times in Adamorobe with deaf/hearing people and have deaf/hearing children with different people. Add the fact that people often marry people with whom they have family ties. Put all that together and you can start to imagine that family trees here are not simple!

Nonetheless, it is important to understand those family ties because deafness is located in families here, and this whole village (or a large part of it) seems to consist of families. That means that if you want to try to understand the social relations between deaf and hearing people, you’ll have you find out who’s related to whom and in which way. Of course I’m not occupied with that the whole time, but now and then I am. (What I àm mostly learning and experiencing here, I’ll blog later on: I have to start somewhere and other things are still to chaotic to put into words correctly, for now).

How, in the end, you succeed in working your way through the family trees? You keep on asking questions: “So, that person is also born from her mother?” – “Yes” – “And him too, that guy we passed yesterday and who did a little dance for me because he wanted to marry me?” – “Yes” – “So who is the eldest?” – “No no Annelies, you don’t get it, they are ‘the same’, but she is not the first born or later born”. Ok, so they are cousins.
Once, I tried communicating with an old deaf woman about the question if a certain dead deaf woman (with many deaf offspring) was her sister. That wasn’t working out too well, because the whole time she thought I was referring to her mother. Because yeah, that’s another issue: the sign for woman, girl and mother is also one and the same. Sometimes I’m afraid it will make me old before my age. With bits and pieces of information, I get there, and I double check regularly with several deaf/hearing people and in different situations. It has already become clear to me that there are at least 40 deaf people in the village centre of Adamorobe, who originate from at least 5 large deaf families (with easily 5 deaf children who are adults now, have gotten married, and have children of their own), who get married amongst each other and who often have direct family ties.

After a short conversation about which large families are related, I want to carry out a double check and I ask 5 deaf people surrounding me: “So you are all ‘the same’?” (‘the same’ this time used in the meaning of ‘cousins’)? “Yes”, signed Ama, “we are all “the same”. “Her too?” I pointed at a deaf woman of whom I had just been told that she was not directly related to them. She answers: “Yes, all of us!” I give her a defeated look. A boy explains: “We are all deaf, that is why we are all ‘the same’ – his facial expression shows me I have to interpret the sign as ‘friends’ this time. I want to start with: “But…” but I smile, shrug my shoulders and nod. To completely or even partly solve the puzzle, I’ll need some more time. :-)