The book is a unique collection of research on sign languages that have emerged in rural communities with a high incidence of, often hereditary, deafness. These "village sign languages" represent the latest addition to the comparative investigation of languages in the gestural modality. With analyses and primary data from eleven different rural communities, the volume represents the first concerted effort by leading experts in both anthropology and linguistics to capture the social dynamics of "deaf villages". The chapters address pertinent issues in contemporary linguistics, such as cross-modal contact situations, typological diversity across sign languages and the impact of language modality on linguistic structure.