Free The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry by Harlan Lane, Richard C. Pillard, Ulf Hedberg Page A

just a small subset of those with whom we share ancestry.ns
    Thus, ethnic kinship, like ethnic history, is culturally constructed.116 Some scholars attribute the myth of shared ancestry to the common physical characteristics (such as physiognomy or skin color) of ethnic group members or to their shared customs.117 We conclude that the claim of kinship is an expression of cohesion between members of the ethnic group-the kind of solidarity owed to one's family but more dif- fuse.118 Ethnic groups are indeed like a family: "The members feel knit to one another and so committed to the cultural heritage, which is the family's inheritance."' 19 A belief in family-like attachments among group members is nourished by language and religion.120 But the claim of kinship need not be accurate biologically. Traditions and legends handed down across the generations can serve in place of alleged kinship as a link to the past and the future.121 African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and countless other ethnic groups transmit language and culture across the generations without real or even imagined shared ancestry.
    To summarize these observations on kinship and ethnicity: "The sense of unique descent need not, and in nearly all cases will not, accord with factual history."122 The kinship myth is an expression of solidarity, of family-like attachments based on shared properties such as physical characteristics and cultural practices. In ethnic groups where there is shared ancestry, what is important is not ancestral descent itself but the shared physical features that arise from it and bind people to one another and to their ancestors, along with shared language and culture. Many ethnic groups have neither real kinship nor a kinship myth; there is no necessary link between kinship and ethnicity. A kinship myth may not arise where ethnic solidarity is reinforced by other means; for example, by language, culture, or religion.123
    ANCESTRY IN THE DEAF-WORLD
    As we have seen, family-like attachments between ethnic group members are often grounded not on the genealogical facts of shared heredity but on language, culture, and physical traits. Properties of the DeafWorld that nourish this diffuse enduring solidarity are the transmission of language and culture down the generations and common physical characteristics (ASL signers are visual people). However, the Deaf-World also provides evidence of shared heredity. In Parts II-IV we present the ancestries of numerous Deaf individuals in the early years of the Deaf-World and we reveal the extensive sharing of ancestors that took place.
    How widespread is shared heredity in the Deaf-World? We need to ask about heredity and then about sharing. What is the percent of ASL signers who are Deaf due to heredity compared to all other causes? No study of ASL signers has been conducted to give us these numbersDeaf due to heredity and Deaf for other reasons-but a rough estimate can be had, if we make some assumptions, from the Gallaudet University Annual Survey of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children. Nearly half of all the children in the 2007-2008 survey were said to have, in terms of audiology, "severe" or "profound" "hearing loss." These children are the most likely to become ASL signers. In this ASL-prone subset, about one-fourth of the children are Deaf due to disease, injury, or maternal illness. These children do not have Deaf ancestry but many will acquire ASL as their primary language, like their hereditarily-Deaf peers. Another fourth of the subset children were known to be hereditarily Deaf because they had Deaf parents or Deaf siblings (brothers and sisters). The remaining half were "other," Deaf for reasons unknown. Most of those children, however, were doubtless Deaf due to heredity for three reasons. First, if they had been Deaf due to illness or injury that would likely be known. Second, the survey did not ask about Deaf relatives or ancestors (other than parents and siblings); had it done so, more