Review for Disability and Society in 1996

of

Disability and Culture

Benedicte Ingstad and Susan Reynolds Whyte (Eds), 1995

Berkeley, University of California Press

x + 307 = 317 pp, $40 (cloth), $15 (paperback)

It is rare that a book makes me wish I could speak another language but the references to a French Foucauldian history of people with impairments in this text did so. Not that there is any French in this one, but the repeated use of Henri-Jacques Stiker's 1982 Corps infirmes et sociÈtÈs (only available in French) makes me hope that it will not be too long until it is translated. It is not a good sign if the book you are reading makes you wish you were reading another; but that would be unfair of me as Disability and Culture is a very good read - in both style and content - and covers a lot of ground that is usually left alone. Though anthropological in discipline its awareness of such diverse areas as discourse theory and western ideological imperialism gives it a maturity that is rare in such studies of non-western/northern cultures and their disabled people. And although it claims that it is aimed at social scientists, health and Rehab workers and the disabled themselves, its audience should be much wider as it touches upon so many interesting areas of cultural and political analysis.

The book is split in to two sections; the first is five chapters on personhood and disability in five different cultures, four Southern and one Northern; with the second section, seven chapters which are mainly about countries from the Southern hemisphere but which includes some comparative essays, being concerned with the social contexts and processes in which impairment is interpreted and experienced. The second section is by far the most rewarding with the chapter (10) on the changing perceptions of impairment in Nicaragua and its political symbolism and use being a cross between anthropological study and cultural studies. It is such a mix of disciplines which enables this text to rise above single discipline texts as its salience and analysis has a depth to it which is rarely achieved. That the epilogue so firmly calls for future anthropological research of this type to be multi-disciplined, to include discourse and genealogical historicism as a minimum, enables one to feel the thrust of the text from beginning to end.

The editors own chapter on the import of Norway's Rehab ideology in to the unsuspecting hands of Botswana is a wonderful example of how such an analysis should work: it gives a history of Norway's disabled people followed by one of Botswana, it then highlights the differences and the hidden agendas and potential outcomes for such unthinking transportation. The history of Norway's provision and cultural and political strands makes the book worthwhile on its own but the skill with which unthinking Northern 1st World charity is beginning to disempower Southern disabled peoples is incredibly astute and well argued. That Norway's disabled people 'banned' charity to ensure equality through state provision and then themselves ran charity projects for the disabled people of Botswana is just one such contradiction that is highlighted with incredible clarity.

Apart from being anthropological in style (ethnographic data collection on field trips to far away places) its use of comparative analysis between the developed and underdeveloped countries is used to reveal how often dubious agendas have been served at the expense of those various projects were set up to help; community based rehabilitation (CBR) by the likes of WHO or various Scandinavian agencies is examined in detail to show that not only did they patronise and disempower the intended client group but that they were set up on the basis of false ideas of the 'natives' as bad and us as good. 'Mpho ya Modimo - A Gift From God' (chapter 13) gives us an excellent example of how the desire to see the 'natives' as doing it wrong enables (in ignorance) aid organisations to completely misinterpret facts for their own purpose (or in the interests of that nations political rulers, which may have little to do with reality). The case of the young man with a learning difficulty locked in a shed is a prime example; but I'll leave that for you to read about.

That the text is written mainly by Scandinavians and translated for the American academic market means that some of the language is somewhat dubious (the man mentioned above is repeatedly called retarded, for example). That Robert Murphey (and his use of the idea of liminality) is virtually revered in the entire text is also a slight weakness and knowledge gaps are apparent in various places - Michael Oliver's seminal text has obviously not been read by the editors - but one can forgive them this for the introduction of new bibliographic material such as the work of Stiker.

Ingstad and Reynolds Whyte acknowledge that this is a first try at trying to broaden the anthropological study of disability to be more open to other disciplines, and that it is a first try at debunking many an anthropological dogma, and, as such, they have succeeded in giving us a book that serves the interest of the disabled themselves and enables the reader to broaden their own knowledge and techniques of disability studies and analysis. Any book that broadens our awareness of disability, be that as a social construct or as a lived experience, is to be recommended and as this book explores disability from both angles in many different and diverse cultures I cannot do anything else but recommend it highly and argue that it should be essential reading on any disability studies course in what ever discipline.

Paul Anthony Darke

University of Warwick