Conclusions: Themes in an Anthropology of Mild Mental Retardation

Abstract

The argument for an anthropological study of mental retardation is, now, an old but still valid one. If there is one firm conclusion to be made over the last decade and one-half of research on this handicapping condition, it is that mild mental retardation is as much or more a social and cultural phenomenon as it is a medical-genetic or cognitive-psychological one. In support of this, different researchers have pointed to the instability of definitions of retardation over the years and how definitional changes have directly affected the absolute number of individuals in the population regarded as “retarded”. They have demonstrated how each new immigrant group has been “found” to have a disproportionate number of retarded members and how this proportion suspiciously changes as even newer immigrant groups replace the old (Kamin, 1974). Other researchers have shown how purportedly retarded persons sometimes blend in with the general population once they are out of school (MacMillan, 1977); and how, at least in recent times, the school system “conspires” to label and place retarded and other developmentally delayed children in special classes in order to fill quotas and guarantee governmental funding (Mehan et al. 1981; Mehan, 1983; 1984).