Deaf History During Medieval Europe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Deaf History During Medieval Europe - Essay Example There were only few deaf people of that period, they were famous, successfully, well educated for those times, some of them inherited titles of their ancestors despite their "disease", and some of them had strong positions in society, they took part in political life of their countries. It was only the one side of this problem. The following problem of medieval deaf people were in association of them with evil, witchcraft, and even the Devil. Children born with deafdisabilities were often perceived as the consequence of their mothers' support for satanic beliefs, illustrating both the ableist and patriarchal values of the era. However, it is also the case that under feudalism, deafdisabled people were generally able to make a contribution, in varying degrees, to a largely rural production process. If disabled people were hospitalized, it was in relatively small medieval hospitals where the focus was on palliative care rather than a cure. Such attitudes to deafdisabled people can be explained by the role... The church and feudal orders were meant to reflect heaven on earth - obedience to God via one's superiors: children obeyed their parents, their parents were their lord's vassals and had to obey him, the lord was the king's vassal, laymen obeyed the clergy, monks obeyed their abbot, clergy and laymen obeyed bishops who themselves were feudal lords, bishops and kings obeyed the Pope-at least in theory. Originality and creativity had to await a commission from the church or a lord, otherwise it was anathema. The church had created itself as a reborn "Imperium Romanum" with the Pope as its emperor and Latin as its language. And Church concidered that disabled people, and deaf ones too, were marked by Evil, by Demon. So, that was the thinking that people had: if you were different you were somehow marked. It is also important to say about the extention of the idea that Christ healed the disabled, so if you were disabled Christ did not favor you.The church alsoused this fear of disabilitie s as a threat to join the church or sickness and disabilities would affect you. Thus they hadtoconvince the people thatthose who were disabled or diseased must not be good Christians. The Church had such influence because medicine and science were in their infancy. Since the Church forbid dissection on humans, scienceandmedicine never really grew. People followed mostly a cause and effect approach. But to the end of Medieval period the attitudes to such people became to change, because among them there were very intelligent and talented people. What was the Hearing peoples view of Deaf during this period The industrial system of those times included weaving and artusaning. This required workers to complete tasks in accordance with