Aspie ethnogenesis - the formation of the Aspie indentity

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Full blooded Australian aboriginals have blonde hair
http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2005/08/blonde ... ginals.php

Prior to the census there was a growing movement to make Jedi the number one religion in Australia.

2 nights before the census the treasurer Peter Costello (on behalf of prime Minister John Howard) announced that anyone caught putting jedi on their census form would be fined.

More than 70,000 people (0.37%) declared themselves members of the Jedi order (anyway) in the 2001 census. The Australian Bureau of Statistics issued an official press release[3] in response to media interest on the subject. The ABS announced that any answers that were Jedi-related in the religion question were to be classified as 'not defined'

I never heard if they received a fine in the mail. The Scientologists are a registered religious group.

Well they still have some certain cultural norms and such....which you don't really have with aspergers.

ccc

Last edited by Warsie on 31 May 2011, 10:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Culture refers to shared patterns of human behaviour. Cultural norms affect the ways people think, eat, dress, work, understand natural phenomena such as weather of the passage from day to night, spend leisure time, communicate, and other fundamental aspects of human interactions. Cultures vary widely in these respects, so that people in one group might at times find those from another culture to be incomprehensible or very unusual. Culture in the strict anthropological sense is passed on from one generation to the next; people think, feel, and behave in certain ways because of what others in their culture have taught them.

Autism is of course not truly a culture; it is a developmental disability caused by neurological dysfunction. Autism too, however, affects the ways that individuals eat, dress, work spend leisure time, understand their world, communicate, etc. Thus, in a sense, autism functions as a culture, in that it yealds characteristic and predictable patterns of behaviour in individuals with this condition. I interpret the role of the parent, teacher, integration aide or psychologist of a child with autism is like that of a cross-cultural interpreter: someone who understands both cultures and is able to translate the expectations and procedures of the non-autistic environment to the student with autism. So to teach or engage with kids with autism, you must understand their culture, and the strengths and deficits that are associated with it.

I don't see that because though I fit the symptoms a lot of the supposed patterns of behavior we are all supposed to exibit that seems to vary a lot.......almost as much as it does with NTs. I really cannot see it as anything like a culture, a culture to me cannot be defined by what abilities people struggle with.

Autism affects the ways that individuals eat, dress, work spend leisure time, understand their world, communicate, etc. Thus, in a sense, autism functions as a culture, in that it yealds characteristic and predictable patterns of behaviour in individuals with this condition.

Autistic people are only just beginning to communicate with each other, but I predict this will eventually reach a threshold where autistic communities (perhaps high functioning ones first) could evolve into a culture. We are seeing the first generation of DX and self DX Aspies meeting and marrying and having kids...

Well I don't like to limit myself to people who only have the same mental condition in common with me....If I hit it off with a fellow aspie and we have kids cool. But maybe I will hit it off with an NT or someone with a condition other then aspergers. If you can find enough people to get in on this culture thing go for it...but its not for me. That is for sure.

Yes of course, individual personal preference will dictate how quickly all this evolves.

One interesting possible reason (this is just a hunch) for the rise in autism in modern times is health, social services and therapy. The incidence of autism in the days of Kanner and Asperger in the late 1940s was considerably lower than today. I assume without proper services, diagnosis and therapy the vast majority of autistic people will never have got married and had kids.

With modern health and social services the ability of higher functioning autistics to find a job, survive and have a family has increased exponentially, Therefore more higher functioning autistic people having kids means a greater transmission of autism related genes into the general community. With time this means the population of higher functioning autistics will reach a threshold where political representation and cultural identity will be a reality.

What do you think about President Alex?

I do not know what I think about that......as I am not sure what you are referring to. But yeah I can't even keep a job and I don't know if I really want to be married and have kids. But yeah I am intelligent and can do well acedemically in college except for math or if I overstress myself..but I don't function well with a lot of things. So I guess due to some of the negatives I don't see this as something to define a culture by As I am taking the difficulties into consideration.

Fair enough, I appreciate your honesty, I'm talking about sometime in the future perhaps not now.

Personally? I voted for Gareth. Unfortunately, the people voted, by and large, the opposite way... I'm telling you, it's our voting system...



Do not be at all surprised by the formation of a separate Aspie/Autie culture. Especially if Autfinity, or some other project like it, gets going...

I'm agreeing with those who object to the word "ethnic" in this discussion. "Culturalgenesis" would be more on point, but since the OP is from the UK, this may be a difference of UK and US english.

ethnic is accurate in this context given the cultural aspects of 'ethnicity'. Serbs and Croatians are the same 'race' but their 'ethnicities' were noticeably different, but not extremely different.

Yeah agreed with the previous poster

Ethnic is can be contextually correct in this situation, however intergroup difference is the more technical term.