I think for a long time deaf people thought: we have to have an exact answer to that, to it means exactly, deaf culture.
So they would say: we call out to each other by tapping each other on the shoulder and we have very specific humor.
But in anthropology a culture is defined as what people do together, who feel connected to each other.
And language plays a very important part in that, so sign language is really a core element in that sense of belonging together...
...because we can exchange something. But it's more than that.
It's the feeling that in a certain way, you have a similar place in the world.
Perhaps because you have a history of contact with the hearing world that all the deaf people live in, that has many similarities.
That you have a history in deaf education together, and a history you can be proud of.
A history of struggles and of victory, for example, against the prohibition of sign language, for example.
That's something that connects people.
And if you ask young deaf people, I think they'll bring up their enormous international network.
There's so much international contact between deaf people, and that's all because of the communicative possibilities.
New media have caused that to surge.
And also because of the possibilities for traveling alone, and traveling cheaper. You don't have to go to a travel agency anymore to arrange that.
So deaf people are traveling all over the world.
There's even a form of deaf tourism, where groups of deaf people...
...visit other deaf people in faraway countries.
That's all a part of deaf culture. So it's not just cracking jokes at the clubhouse, or anything.
It's really what deaf people do together, what gives them the feeling of...
...yeah, we are... in some way, we have more in common than we differ from each other.
And we have more in common with each other than with the hearing world around us.