Presentation Schedule
Navigating Identity Among a Non-signing deaf Clan in Meghalaya, India (104785)
Session Chair: Sentijungla Sentijungla
Monday, 11 May 2026 16:20
Session: Session 4
Room: Room G403 (4F)
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
The current study is an ethnographic exploration of the narratives of identity among a deaf clan called Nongsteng in Meghalaya, India, through the lens of deaf and hearing clan members. deaf individuals from this clan predominantly display post-lingual hereditary hearing loss and lack an established sign language, tacitly subscribing to a bicultural identity. Pairing Goffman’s Theory of Identity with Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory, an intensive fieldwork was conducted for twenty months to understand “the presentation of self” and the criteria of inclusion or exclusion within and outside deaf cliques. In line with this, data were obtained from sixty-four deaf (n=64) and forty-four hearing (n=44) Nongsteng members by executing interviews through a semi-structured schedule coupled with case studies. The findings revealed a contrasting view against the largely conceived Western binary classification of d/Deaf identities and posit that social identity among the Nongsteng was mediated by historical and cultural dynamics, challenging normative identity constructs. The findings further disavow the rigid medical or social-cultural affiliation for d/Deaf communities, reinstating that deaf identity is multifaceted, allowing fluidity of identity expression and bridging the rhetorical cultural divide between hearing and d/Deaf worlds.
Keywords: Identity; deaf clan; non-signing; bicultural
Authors:
Sentijungla Sentijungla, Nagaland University, India
About the Presenter(s)
Dr Sentijungla is currently a Guest faculty in the Department of Anthropology at Nagaland University, India.
See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule
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