Silence, Identity, and Apes

Russell Martin, Out of Silence (Penguin Books, 1994) An account of one boy who becomes autistic just after he Speaks bis first word: cow. The book, written by the boy's uncle, captures the personal side of autism, its implications for family life, and us frustrations.

Oliver Sacks, Seeing Voices (University of California Press, 1989) Areview of the his ton of the deaf community in America as well as a basic overview of sign language. We read this book in my class with an eye to dispelling myths about sign language, such as that it is simply "English spoken withvour hands" or that it is merely a kind of pantomimeand also to get a sense of how important language can be to thought and to community identity.

Roger Sha truck, The Forbid en Experiment (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1980) The case of the wild boy of Aveyron. The author explains why "wild children" are of such great interest to scientists and why drey raise a host of ethical problems for researchers.

Joel Wallman, allman. Aping Language (Cambridge University Press, 1992) A critical review of experiments that have attempted to teach primates human language; The author concludes that none of these experiments have even come close to demonstrating that apes have a capacity for human language.

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