Culture as Disability
- 1 September 1995
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Anthropology & Education Quarterly
- Vol. 26 (3) , 324-348
- https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.1995.26.3.05x0936z
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.Keywords
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