Deaf children, social bond and language: an anthropological approach on language appropriation by deaf children in Marajó Island (PA)

Abstract

This article presents an ethnographic study about social experiences, focusing on the appropriation of language by deaf children, carried out in the communities of Céu and Caju-Una, located in the municipality of Soure, in the Marajo Island (PA), through which the way children enter the field of language through their family relationships and Community life is discussed.  In this paper, language is highlighted as a phenomenon linked to primordial relationships which, gradually, expands itself to the extent that it is incorporated into the subjective reality of these children. This study confirms the importance of social bonding for the symbolic constructions that enrich the field of language and prepare the ground for the emergence of the language. In order to understand the linguis-tic circulation in situations observed during his field work, the author describes how relationships of linguistic domination are forged within the scope of culture, how deaf children build their social bonds and how they position themselves in relation to shared games in the spaces of the house and of community life.  It is the symbolic richness that allows us to uncover language in human experience and exercise a new look at the experiences that animate the everyday life of Marajoara children, in a scenario in which the author includes himself as an anthropologist and participates as a writer of this rich universe.