Anthropology : The World Safe For Human Differences

In Nancy Mairs’ article for The New York Times, “Disability”, published in 1987, she expresses her distaste with the media's representation of handicapped people. Mairs, who struggled with multiple sclerosis herself, clearly and sharply conveys this disgust by stating, “I’m not, for instance, Ms. MS, a walking, talking embodiment of a chronic incurable degenerative disease.” (Mairs 13), and that she is actually, “the advertisers’ dream: Ms. Great American Consumer. And yet the advertisers, who determine nowadays who will get represented publicly and who will not, deny the existence of me and my kind absolutely”(Mairs 14). Mairs is greatly upset that disabled people are defined by their disabilities and, therefore, are underrepresented in public media. This might lead to one asking themselves, but why are they? And the answer, according to Mairs, is quite simple, “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anybody’s life”(Mairs 14). Mairs concludes by pointing out how this effacement could have dangerous consequences for both disabled people and, as she called everyone else, TAPs (Temporarily Abled Persons) alike. Treating disabilities as an abnormal characteristic (as opposed to viewing them “as a normal characteristic, one that complicates but does not ruin human existence” (Mairs 15)) can cause one of these repercussions, as it makes the

The amount of people who live with disabilities is a controversial number. Depending on what law and diagnostic tools used, a person may have a visible disability, or one that may lie beneath the surface of his or her appearance. Some people believe that the term “disability” is merely a label use to hold back, or prescribe helplessness. Meanwhile, individuals who have been properly diagnosed with disabilities struggle to maintain respect and acceptance every day. In plain language, there is a lot of misunderstanding between people with disabilities and those without. It is firstly important to get everyone on the same page regarding the definition of disability.

Society can never strive to be “Normal” because it leaves out many people and creates an assumption that anyone who has a disability has something wrong with them. The able-body has to strive to find a way to include people with disabilities because they do not lack anything, because the way society is built has made them have impairments. People need to come together in order to start building the world where it is setup for anyone. Checking your own privileges shows that you have understand how life is set up the way it is and education is key factor to create change in Ableism. Abel-body people have to do their job of creating a world suitable for everyone. Privileges come with responsibility to help people who have disabilities. The responsibility to look out for everyone can bring perceptive on how people should value everything that is given to them and see everyone as being

The small town of Inishmaan leaves many readers wondering how one culture could be so against disabilities, but in a way that is ok? Billy who is known as the town’s, “Cripple Billy,” is treated unfairly due to his flaws, which is not how one with a disability should be

The United States has many minority groups that face oppression. In the media today, most of the minority issues that are highlighted involve the LGBTQ community, women, and racial minorities. Differently-abled people are rarely given the space to share with the world how they see it. This literature review will discuss terms related to visual impairment, legislative measures taken in the United States to assist those with severe visual impairments, and the oppression and discrimination those who are visually impaired face.

Adah perceives the world differently because she is born with the disability of hemiplegia which causes her to walk with a limp, and causes her to be treated differently in society. Although her disability causes her to be seen as unintelligent, Adah perceives the world in a unique way and in palindromes. An important cultural difference between the United States and Africa is the treatment of individuals with disabilities. Adah states that “ here , bodily damage is more or less considered to be a by-product of living not a disgrace. In the way of the body and other people’s judgement I enjoy a benign approval in Kilanga that I have never known in Bethlehem, Georgia “(72). Adah is finally able to feel accepted in a society where disability does not define her. In the United States, disability is a locus of oppression meanwhile in Africa disability is not a form of exclusion from society. In Kikanga the villagers cannot be labeled

In 2014, George Gmelch studied and observed the practices, taboos, and fetishes that have been placed by other players perviously in the history of baseball. Gmelch amassed tremendous pieces of information upon us with all these players having different rituals,taboos, snd fetishes . From eating Popeyes every morning to avoiding eating certain foods, whatever flats your boat is what works. By slowly but surely observing all these actions Gmelch put together a piece that really can break down the "baseball magic".

Dr. Munyi of Kenyatta University states in “Past and Present Perceptions Towards Disability: A Historical Perspective” that fear,

By tracing the impacts of this movement, one can gain a better understanding of how fear and devaluing of people with disabilities became deeply embedded in our culture. Doctors were still calling people with disabilities burdens, segregating them in institutions, sterilizing them, and treating them as subhuman as late as the 1970’s. Today, many people still treat people with disabilities as burdens and with fear. During the height of eugenics in America, medical research was being done on people with disabilities (Groce and Marks, 2000). This is a clear equivalent to the status of animal, as only animals and people with disabilities were used in the manner; comparing people with disabilities to animals remains part of our medical and academic culture. In fact, Groce and Marks (2000) challenged anthropologists who consider the value of non-human primates higher than other animals because of their similarities to people with disabilities, connecting these arguments to the American eugenics movement. While the result of the eugenics movement was to devalue people with disabilities, and anthropologists in this case intended to increase the value of the life of the primate, in both instances, the

Ableism and Disability oppression is a concept that is often ignored and underrepresented in social justice issues. The concept of ableism is the idea that society is disadvantageous towards people with disabilities and mental illnesses. When analyzing institutional, societal, and cultural structures through the view of ableism and disability oppression, one can concur that exclusionary practices allow for the despotism of people with disabilities and mental issues. Furthermore, the underlying issues of the institutional ableism allow for the perpetuation of mental illness and disability stigmas. For instance, in the reading Ableism it states, “The medicalization of disability fostered the belief that people with disabilities needed to be monitored

This article begins with Mary Forr discussing how society has reached the point where people with disabilities are faced with the greatest form of discrimination available and how this type of discrimination grows when other persons within society get rid of individuals who have any genetic differences through abortions. Next Forr discusses the history of discrimination and how person with disabilities have been treated as “less than human.” Forr even gives and excellent example of this when she quotes Aristotle, “Let there be a law that no deformed child shall live.” In this instance Forr explains how the child was seen as a liability on the society in which it lived in and the child’s death was determined to be a greater benefit. Forr continues

Disability in a socio-cultural context can be defined as "a barrier to participation of people with impairments or chronic illnesses arising from an interaction of the impairment or illness with discriminatory attitudes, cultures, policies or institutional practices" (Booth, 2000). The traditional view of disability often focuses on the individual, highlighting incapacities or failings, a defect, or impairment. This focus creates obstacles to participation on equal terms since an individual who seems to lack certain capacities may not be able to attain autonomy.

Cold Water, directed by Noriko Ogami is a documentary from 1986 about cross-cultural adaptation and culture shock. It is about diving into a new culture and having it feel, as one foreign student puts it, like a “plunge into cold water.” Twelve Boston University foreign students express their perceptions of their experiences in the U.S. as each of them (plus one American student and three specialists) is interviewed about living and studying in a new culture. Initial focus is on the arrival and immediate post-arrival period and the culture shock which, for most of the interviewees, follows on its heels. It becomes clear that central to the problems encountered

1. In which region and in what country is San Basilio located? What is the language of the linguistic minority in this region? What are the cultural advantages of being in this linguistic minority?

The novel Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon illustrates living with a disability and overcoming society’s stereotypical views. People with disabilities are often labeled as abnormal. In the novel the main character, Lou