Culture as Disability
Abstract
Common sense allows that persons unable to handle a difficult problem can be labeled “disabled.” Social analysis shows that being labeled often invites a public response that multiplies the difficulties facing the seemingly unable. Cultural analysis shows that disability refers most precisely to inadequate performances only on tasks that are arbitrarily circumscribed from daily life. Disabilities are less the property of persons than they are moments in a cultural focus. Everyone in any culture is subject to being labeled and disabled.
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These three cultural discourses share a perspective of the universe organized across a grid of rigid dichotomies.
“These three distinct cultural discourses share a perspective of the universe organized across a grid of rigid dichotomies [9, 39, 40].”
From The person in the disabled body: a perspective on culture and personhood from the margins (2016) · cites this paper as [40]
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- Authors
- McDermott, R., & Varenne, H.
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- Venue
- Anthropology & Education Quarterly
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1995-09
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 324-348
- ISSN
- 0161-7761 (ISSN-L)
- 1548-1492
- OpenAlex
- W2081986795
- Cited by
- 482
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 38 · 2012: 42
- FWCI
- 26.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Anthropology & Education Quarterly (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Rights and Representation
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
- Keywords
- disability, social labeling, social construction of disability
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