Deaf History during Medieval Europe - Essay Example

The status of Deaf people, socially and politically during Medieval Europe, was quite complicated. Deaf people have existed for as long as there have been human beings. The first mentioned about deaf people is in 575-550 BC: Deaf son (name unknown) of Croesus, king of Lydia; first recorded deaf person in history. Croesus' other son, Athys, was hearing and had his name preserved for posterity, these names were mentioned in Book I of Herodotus' History, and in the Cyropaedia by Xenophon. But this work is about the role of deaf people in Medieval Europe: Jaime Lopez was a Spanish deaf painter; Princess Jean (also known as Joanna) was a daughter of King James I of Scotland and Queen Jane Beaufort; Teresa de Cartagena, a deaf nun, a philosopher and a writer; Joachim du Bellay, a Frenchman deafened in early childhood, became a famous author and poet; Barend Dircksz (or Dirckszoon) was a Flemish or Dutch painter, nicknamed "Doove" (Deaf) Barend; Hendrick Barentzoon Avercamp was born deaf in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, he became a painter noted for his oil landscapes. There were only few deaf people of that period, they were famous, successfully, well educated for those times, some of them inherited titles of their ancestors despite their "disease", and some of them had strong positions in society, they took part in political life of their countries. It was only the one side of this problem. The following problem of medieval deaf people were in association of them with evil, witchcraft, and even the Devil. Children born with deafdisabilities were often perceived as the consequence of their mothers' support for satanic beliefs, illustrating both the ableist and patriarchal values of the era. However, it is also the case that under feudalism, deafdisabled people were generally able to make a contribution, in varying degrees, to a largely rural production process. If disabled people were hospitalized, it was in relatively small medieval hospitals where the focus was on palliative care rather than a cure. Such attitudes to deafdisabled people can be explained by the role of Church in those centuries: it had a leading position in politically and social life of medieval society. To keep that power Church needed to impose the strictest obedience to authority and for centuries nominally free men were slaves. The church and feudal orders were meant to reflect heaven on earth - obedience to God via one's superiors: children obeyed their parents, their parents were their lord's vassals and had to obey him, the lord was the king's vassal, laymen obeyed the clergy, monks obeyed their abbot, clergy and laymen obeyed bishops who themselves were feudal lords, bishops and kings obeyed the Pope-at least in theory. Originality and creativity had to await a commission from the church or a lord, otherwise it was anathema. The church had created itself as a reborn "Imperium Romanum" with the Pope as its emperor and Latin as its language. And Church concidered that disabled people, and deaf ones too, were marked by Evil, by Demon. So, that was the thinking that people had: if you were different you were somehow marked. It is also important to say about the extention of the idea that Christ healed the disabled, so if you were disabled Christ did not favor you.The church alsoused this fear of disabilities as a threat to join the church or sickness and disabilities would affect you. Thus they hadtoconvince the people thatthose who were disabled or diseased must not be good Christians. The Church had such influence because medicine and science were in their infancy. Since the Church forbid dissection on humans, scienceandmedicine never really grew. People followed mostly a cause and effect approach. But to the end of Medieval period the attitudes to such people became to change, because among them there were very intelligent and talented people. What was the Hearing peoples view of Deaf during this period The industrial system of those times included weaving and artusaning. This required workers to complete tasks in accordance with specified time standards. Those who were unable, including deaf people, to do so as a result of an impairment were labelled deviant even though they might have in fact contributed to production under previous regimes of capital accumulation. They were therefore marginalized and excluded from the labor force. Disability accordingly developed into a crucial boundary between the deserving poor entitled to relief and the undeserving poor. Yet what is remarkable is how even in this time period, the concept of disablement was not a static category enshrined in medical science but a variable boundary category in flux that might change depending on the state of the economy, the needs of the labor market, and the state of the labor movement and level of class struggle. And with the development of the printing press in 1480, at a time when most people could not read in Europe, cartoons became a popular way of making political and moral comments to the mass audience over the next 500 years. The old ideas of the Greeks became recycled. Man was created by gods who were perfect in their own image, and so the less physically perfect one was the less good. Evil, moral weakness and powerlessness were shown as caricatured deafdisabled people. How did people contribute to the general community during this period As it was said above in Medieval Europe some deaf people were very talented and made their countries famous: John of Paris (also known as John the Deaf, John Quidort, Jean le Sourd, Johannes de Soardis, Surdus, and Monoculus). He was a Dominican monk known for his work in philosophy, theology, and political theory; Jaime Lopez was a Spanish deaf painter, nicknamed "El Mudo". He is noted for his historical paintings, which include decorations in the Hermitage of Our Lady of Prado and a painting of St. John the Baptist in the Church of Toledo; Cristoforo de Predis was a deaf early Renaissance illuminator and miniaturist in Milan, Italy. The surname sometimes appears as da Predis or di Predis. His better-known hearing half-brother, Ambrogio de Predis, also a painter, worked with Leonardo da Vinci and reportedly taught Leonardo some of his deaf brother's signs to help make Leonardo's paintings more expressive. Some sources erroneously label Cristoforo as Ambrogio's father, but they were in fact half-brothers. The "Predis Codex" is a bound collection of Cristoforo's miniature paintings of scenes from the Bible; Joachim du Bellay, a Frenchman deafened in early childhood, became a famous author and poet. He wrote love sonnets and "The Defense and Illustration of the French Language"(1549). He is credited with helping to establish the form of the modern French language, and is considered one of the great French poets of the Renaissance; he also became the best Latin-language poet in Europe. So, deaf people were a part of cultural life of Europe. But what about deaf people who had not opportunity to get any knowledge They became servants to hearing men, many of them were just beggars and vagabonds. Comparing the historical conditions of the deaf people to the conditions of today it is necessary to say that in modern world attitudes to deaf people are different: only in the beginning of the 20th century there were a film 'See No Evil, Hear No Evil' which made fun of a blind and a deaf man. Think of the circus and the freak show where people paid money to laugh at people who were different to them. The last freak show were only closed in 1995! How many other films where disabled people are shown as funny, evil or pathetic Here is one more example: UK Government Survey (Winter, 1995) showed that only 40% of disabled adults of working age (16-65 years old) were working or unemployed, among them there were deaf people. The rest - 60% - or 2.2 million disabled people were on benefit and not looking for work. It also showed that of the 3.7 million disabled adults of working age 41 % had no educational qualifications. This compared to the whole working population very poorly where only 18% had no educational qualifications. This situation reflects generations of prejudice, fear and discrimination towards disabled people in education and work. The main reasons are negative attitudes and stereotypes, which are based on untrue ideas that have been around for thousands of years. And the other view about this idea is the following: there are many different organisations and associations for deaf people in every country of Europe to safeguard the accessibility and civil rights of millions deaf and hard of hearing people in education, employment, health care, telecommunications and others. Their programs and activities include grassroots advocacy and empoverment, captioned media, deafness-related information and publications, legal assistance, policy development and research, public awareness, and youth leadership development. So, every country must be kind, and must have strong policy to defend and help people who need this. Work cited 1. A brief history of attitudes to disabled people. http://www.diseed.org.uk/History_of_images.htm 2. The Decline Of The Medieval Church 1300-1500. http://www.emayzine.com/lectures/decline_church.htm 3. Attitudes and Disabled People. http://www.independentliving.org/docs1/dispeopleintldev1.html The Dark Ages http://www.askwhy.co.uk/awcnotes/cn1/0060Nazarene.html 4. Gallaudet University Library Guide to Deaf Biographies. http://liblists.wrlc.org/deafbiog/. Read More