| ID | 185588 |
| Title Proper | Thinking with signs |
| Other Title Information | caste, ethnicity and the dual body in contemporary Eastern Nepal |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Green, E. Mara |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This article examines jāt (‘caste, ethnicity’) through the lens of signed conversations in contemporary eastern Nepal, where both intimacy and inequality characterise inter-jāt relations. Local deaf and hearing people refer in sign to a person’s jāt with an action taken as emblematic of that jāt, such as drinking alcohol. Signers use the same phrases to discuss persons’ actions, which may or may not conform to typifications. Analysing signed discourse reveals that people negotiate a shifting social landscape through an approach to bodies as ontologically dual, belonging both to selves with idiosyncratic habits and to jāt groups with prescribed and proscribed practices. |
| `In' analytical Note | South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies Vol. 45, No.3; Jun 2022: p.440-455 |
| Journal Source | South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies Vol: 45 No 3 |
| Key Words | Nepal ; Deaf ; Doing and Being ; Jat Caste/Ethnicity ; Natural Sign ; Sign Language |