Repeated assemblages in the interactions of deaf youth in Peru

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I address the question of how interactions with deaf youth and their hearing interlocutors are able to unfold in economical and fluid ways despite the existence of sensory and communicative asymmetries. Bringing together ethnographic insights from two years of fieldwork in Iquitos, Peru with the microanalysis of moments of situated interaction, I highlight the role that repetitions of similar assemblages of people, objects, and places play in the process of meaning-making between deaf youth and their hearing interlocutors. I argue that the repetition of similar assemblages facilitates the process of meaning-making by narrowing down the trajectory of the interactions that emerge in a particular moment and by providing the occasion for building shared semiotic resources specific to the reoccurring activity.

KEYWORDS:

• Linguistic ethnography
• microanalysis of interaction
• deaf and hearing interaction
• sensory asymmetries

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the two anonymous reviewers, Annelies Kusters, and José Goico Jr. for their helpful feedback on drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ethical approval for the study was provided by the University of California, San Diego Institutional Review Board (#131300S).

2 Ages are calculated from the time of the recording of the interactional extracts presented in the paper.

3 Melanie’s blindness was diagnosed after I observed her in the classroom and worked with the family to set up an eye exam.

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number (1357221). Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny Fellowship.