Cultural Influences on Nonverbal Communication
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Anthropologists have watched and studied people for generations, their research methods varying over time. It is clear to them that people are deeply immersed, enmeshed in the culture in which they are raised. Whether anthropologists look for uniformity or dissimilarity among people, they know that humans are deeply influenced by cultures.
Culture is a cognitively symboled system, meaning that cultural interaction is based on a system of symbols and signs which the natives of that culture share. There are cultural "logics", every culture having a unique sense of semiosis (Merrell, 1998). Humans are born into culture, they maintain it and pass it on to their children. Their lifeworlds are formed though the joint production of meaning (Fortas, 1995). Humans interact symbolically, one with the other, acting out their lives in cultural spheres, such as the kinship group, clan or tribe. Knowledge, norms and symbols are passed from older generation to younger generation along with modes of work and play. Nonverbal behaviors are passed on as well.
Acculturation, or the processes involved in the acquiring of culture, influence human perceptions, which in turn, influence nonverbal behaviors and their interpretation. This is because culture consists of shared cognitive representations(Romney, Boyd, Moore, Batchelder and Brazill, 1996). in the minds of individuals, resulting from a common history, a common language and a common value system.
Cultures have permeable boundaries; they are not fixed. Variability in cultural patterning is obvious as are the contrasts between cultures. Being raised in China is very different from being raised in the United States, say, in St. Louis. The differences in linguistic habits, in customs and beliefs and in the daily patterns of life are clear to those who have spent time in both places. Yet, despite the differences, people living in both cultures are sufficiently similar, so that they share commonly in the tasks of living, growing and dying.
Modern technology is rapidly changing traditional cultures, as will be discussed in chapter eight. Television, film and digital culture, originally confined to Western countries, are now universally dispersed. Indeed, countries as different, one from the other, as Japan and the Netherlands belong to a new technology-based culture, a Northern belt, crossing the traditional boundaries of nation and cultures. As the popular saying implies, humans seem to be constructing a "global village" (Mcluhan, 1964). Could the multimedia explosion be leading to a "global mind" as well? Telematic networks are abolishing time and space which bear upon human identity.
Traditional cultures still exist and they provide contrasting examples of nonverbal communication. The major purpose of this chapter is to show the reader how deeply culture imbeds itself in human behavior. Genetics and bio-physical processes influence human behavior, but the emphasis in this chapter is upon the cultural aspects of behavior. In nonverbal communication, nature meets culture (Segerstrale & Molnar, 1997).
Symbolic interactionism provides a way to view and understand human nonverbal communication. It is a dynamic, creative process that focuses on the symbolic meaning of human interaction. Humans construct meaning in their lives; they enact lines of nonverbal action and performance, as they try to adjust to and influence the people and events in their everyday lives. Not only do humans act in small groups they also engage in unique cultural and ceremonial practices with large numbers of people (Turner,1986).
Readers need to be cautioned that not all members of a given culture think or think or act alike. Within any broad culture, there are ethnic groups whose ways of life separate them out from the mainline culture. Individuals, too, vary in the ways that they present themselves. The word culture is employed as a broad brush, lumping sometimes isolated groups together without giving explicit attention to the thought processes of each individual. (Barth, 1969).
Scholars in the humanities and in the social sciences have shared mutual interests in culture over a period of several years; the boundaries between them appear to be disappearing (Becker & McCall, 1990). The way that culture is defined is often the result of the orientation of the individual researcher.
The word culture has many meanings(1). Popular culture, for example, deals with expressive forms which are spread widely throughout a society, often associated with mass communications. People decide what book to read, what film to watch or what social event to attend. High culture, or hoch kultur, on the other hand, is a term that is used to refer to a special or preferred set of social activities enjoyed by the few. For example, in the United States people who love opera are usually interested in other fine arts as well.
The perception is that classical music, museum art and archaeological activities are enjoyed by well educated and monied people. Popular culture, on the other hand, is usually associated with mass communication, film, radio, books and television. Despite these perceptual differences, given the powerful role of the mass media, the classical lively arts seem to be blending with popular culture forming a new cultural hybrid.
By typing the word culture into a search engine on the internet, one may find more than fifty definitions and examples of culture, ranging from cyberculture to teenager culture. These uses of the word are specialized, applying to unique groups, associated with specialized activities. A broader interpretion of culture is used in this text referring to all of the activities that comprise a person's life, including values, beliefs, habits, thoughtways, customs, technology, art, language, religion and ways of making a living (Kluckhonhn, 1965). The word enculturation suggests that a person who is raised in a specific culture will exhibit the norms of that culture. In short, people are bathed in culture, completely immersed in it.
As mentioned, the idea of culture may be unique to humans. Nevertheless, ethologists who study primate behavior including gorillas and chimps, the closest associates of humans on the evolutionary ladder, point to genetic and social similarities between higher primates and human beings. For example, chimp genes may be useful in the prediction of disease patterns in humans, their genetic patterns being very similar to those of human beings. Research shows that chimps can use sign languages and even teach their offspring how to do the same. Perhaps chimps have a culture (Sagan, 1977); chimps can use Ameslan and Yerkish, two nonverbal languages, to "talk" to humans and to one another. Whether chimps or other species have a culture or not is an interesting scientific puzzle; the meaning of the word culture is confined to its application to human beings in this book, although, at various points, ethological research is used for illustrative purposes.
Cultures may be impressed on people both formally and informally. For example, the Zuni of new Mexico have a formal culture that puts pressure on its members, which they cannot disregard if they are to remain members. Most Americans, on the other hand, are generally informal about their culture, except where serious tradition plays a strong role, emphasizing what is right and correct to do, as in fundamentalist religions.
Following SI thinking, humans take account of cultural ways, trying to make sense of them, drawing upon them to give meaning to their lives. Tribal members who wear little but a loin cloth have made sense of the stuff of their culture and adapted accordingly.
Framing Cultural Myths
Myths are forms of spiritual metaphor which help members of cultures organize rituals, celebrations and other human activities. There is a thematic quality to myths, such as stories about creation, heroic accounts, human quests, destructive floods and astronomical figures. Myths define cultures; they may be used to compare cultures (Campbell, 1964).
All cultures have myths that are passed on from generation to generation. The bee hunters, located in remote areas of India, for example, believe that the bee trees are benevolent females. This myth is passed on from parent to child; unfortunately, the tribe is diminishing in size as members die off. Eventually, the myth associated with the tree will disappear (Valli, 1998).
It has been argued that Eastern myths differ from Western myths in the ways that they allude to ultimate reality. In Eastern religions, myths are guides to the beyond. In the West, myths are often associated with icons, figurines or other representations, in the present. In the West, the Creator is involved in His creation (Campbell,1964).
Myths, of course, provide cultural meaning to the lives of everyday persons. Myths suggest that everyday life is natural or meant to be the way it is. But, analysis of cultural behavior reveals that culture is the product of human action heavily influenced by environmental factors, such as the presence of modern technologies. For example, past-oriented cultures have a degree of permanence that technologically oriented cultures do not have which gives rise to the belief that things are meant to be the way they are.
By comparison, one can actually observe changes taking place in technologically developed countries; the sense of permanency is lost. Grandparents in the United States tell their grandchildren about important changes over the span of their lifetime, from the rumble seat to the picture tube and the internet. Indeed, the speed of change is itself increasing. Communicative technologies are changing society in remarkable ways. The speed of change is faster in highly technical societies than it is in past-oriented, oral societies. For this reason, technologically advanced societies tend to be present or future oriented while societies that have relatively undeveloped technologies tend to be past-oriented. The achievement of identity is complicated in complex, modern societies. The routes to achievement become blurred.
Values are embedded in all cultures; as a child becomes enculturated, values are centered in the individual personality and reflected in behaviors (Ball-Rokeach, Rokeach & Grube, 1984). For example, if a society values openness and emotional expressiveness, individuals will reflect those values behaviorally in interaction with others (Gudykunst, 1997).
Values are guides to actions. The cultural background influences the individual; the individual's personal agentry and presentation of self reflect the expectations of others. If, for example, a culture permits the open display of emotions, its members will tend to freely display their emotions.
A worldview, or weltanschauung, is shared by members of a culture. Beliefs and ways of thinking become embedded in human thought through the processes of assimilation and accommodation, each a part of the enculturation process. When people assimilate the culture they explore it proactively, adapting it to their needs. When people accommodate themselves to the culture, they adapt or accept, with little modification, the elements of culture and allow them to shape their thinking (Sarbaugh, 1979). Both verbal and nonverbal communicative behaviors reflect these processes. For example, the child raised in a Bedouin society, as a member of a wandering desert tribe, will learn to eat only with the right hand, following the ways of the elders in his tribe. Chinese in traditional China eat with chopsticks.
Cultures and the societies within them have been described in different ways by different scholars. For example, cultures are said to be high-context or low-context (Hall, 1966) referring to how people in those cultures communicate. Members of high culture context tend to rely less on the written word, many of the meanings of their lives being hidden and unexpressed. Their cultural codes are more implicit than explicit, known by the individual but not expressed directly.
Traditional Japan is a high context society while the United States is a low context society. It is said about visitors to Japan, that although they may have mastered the language, they can not become fully saturated in Japanese culture because they were not born into it. They will always be outsiders.
Cultures vary along an individualism-collectivism dimension, meaning that members in a highly individualist society, for example, will display individualistic behaviors, as in the United States. A Confucian saying applying to Chinese society, a collectivistic society, warns "If a nail sticks up, hammer it down." The ideas behind rugged individualism, demonstrated in the Western expansion movements in early America, do not apply to the Chinese.
Other dimensions that scholars emphasize include the uncertainty-avoidance continuum, the masculinity-feminity continuum, and the power-distance continuum (Gudykunst, 1997). The word continuum implies that there is a range along which cultures vary, each culture being positioned at some point along that range. For example, people in highly male dominated societies, or patriarchies, as in parts of Latin America, may demonstrate a machismo attitude. The Cuban society, discussed in this book, reflects a system of machismo. Matriarchal societies, or those that reflect the emphasis upon the primacy of females, are found in parts of Africa and in past cultures where female goddesses were exhibited and worshipped. Power orientations are different, comparatively, in male and female oriented cultures.
The rugged individualistic tradition, so much a part of early American society, placed men above women in social affairs. Historically, the concept of rugged individualism applied mostly to males, a fact that influences gendered behaviors even in the modern world. The frontier spirit, the rough life, the male drive for gold in the mid-1800's emphasized male primacy, as part of rugged individualism. Levi jeans were built for the wear and tear of the male lifestyle. Today, of course, in a more relaxed society, females wear jeans; the male domination, so characteristic of earlier times, although not completely eroded, has been muted or moderated.
It may be tempting to oversimplify the characterization of cultures along the lines of one dimension or the other. In reality, the themes mentioned above are simplified ways of looking at the dynamics of any society or culture. Cultures are complex. Individual members display diverse behaviors. It is only by sustained, intimate exposure, by the immersion of oneself in a culture, that one can really understand that culture and appreciate the complexity and diversity of cultural life.
Culture is created by repeated communicative behaviors and processes, learned from the past by one generation, passed on to the next. Both verbal and nonverbal communication form the base of culture. (Latane, Mar. 09, 1996). Following the SI model described fully in chapter nine, humans create (2)culture by conferring meaning upon interactive events, both verbal and nonverbal. Humans develop a sense of the self, a cultural identity, that includes perceptions of the body and daily experiences. As social beings, humans engage in collective activities. The body becomes specially symbolized in every culture depending on cultural traditions(Vlahos, 1979). For example, in a popular vein in the United States, it is not uncommon to hear the human body described using a continuum from one to ten. The perfect body is a 10, hardly a universal concept.
Cultures vary comparatively, but there are rough resemblances of behavior in societies that share the same general culture. For example, the spoken language is a defining feature of all cultures; highly diversified, there are more than 2500 languages spoken, of which 82 are used by 96 percent of the population of the earth, most of which are unwritten (Mowlana, 1996). Nonverbal communication is highly varied, as well. The spoken language acts as a cultural lens, shaping and influencing human perceptions, while nonverbal communication is the action component. The two, acting together, reflect cultural norms.
Anthropologists and others are often influenced by evolutionary theory, which has changed enormously in the past few decades. For example, it is now common for evolutionists to deal with gene mutations and chromosomal rearrangements to explain changes in species (Wilson, 1992). In earlier times, Darwinism was associated with eugenics, which suggested that some humans were superior to others; methods such as phrenology were designed to demonstrate the superiority of one race over the other. Although the belief that a particular race may be superior to another has not completely disappeared, it has far less currency in modern evolutionary thought. The study of eugenics has a murky past.
Very early anthropological studies were conducted from a Western, European point of view. The research reflected the values of white male Europeans and Americans. This Western value orientation may be reflected in the concept of a hierarchy of races, a scheme based on the uses of the human body. This view suggested that the eye-man occupied the top of the hierarchy, characterized by Westerners; the ear-man came next, characterized by Asians; then followed the nose-man, represented by Native Americans, followed by the tongue-man, as found among the Australian aborigines. Finally, at the bottom of the hierarchy was the skin-man, as found among Africans (Gould, 1981). Doubtless, this scheme is errant and without merit; as mentioned, it reflected the values of early Western anthropologists. All senses, of course, are present in all cultures, although members of various cultures may appear to value one sense over another.
Humans create meaning by using symbols to represent everyday life. Objects, events, humans, indeed all things, are symbolized by humans in the sensemaking process (Strecker, 1988). As mentioned, the human body is presented in multiple ways in various cultures, ranging from colored bodies, as in the painted black bodies of ancient Mayans who associated black with evil and the underworld or the Blue Men who live among the Tuareg of the Sahara, so named for the color of dye that rubs onto the skin from their clothing.
The use of facial masks is an historic art form in China. Long hair was a symbol of manly strength, as in the Samson and Delilah story. The body is used even to convey class consciousness, as in the early Indian caste system where the human head represented the highest classes and the feet represented the outcastes. Goddesses and gods in early Greek and Roman times bore male and female images. In America, of course, the body is adorned, painted and colored to make one beautiful. In short, the body is the ultimate symbol (Vlahos, 1979).
Rituals associated with birth and death and all that is in between depict the body in various ways. The practices associated with birth and death vary highly between cultures as do rites of passage, such as firewalking. Common in various parts of the world, firewalking is used as a test of mind and spirit over matter. Painful flagellations, ear punctures or other forms of body infliction, are used in rites of passage to enable young males and females to pass into adulthood (Houseman, 1998;Turner,1967). Culture, ritual, place and pain are wound together in the practice of flagellation.
Both human and animal bodies are displayed in tourist places, as in postcards and other advertisements, and in zoos throughout the world as a form of staged tourism (Desmond, 1999). Public displays of corporeality reveal identity, gender, ethnicity and culture. Not only do people watch people but they are fascinated by the behaviors of other species, especially the behavior of animals like pandas (Allen, April, 2001)and chimps. In some countries where primates originate, they are often accorded mystical bonds with humans; in other countries, people are sometimes annoyed at the evolutionary association of humans with primates (Preuschoft, 2000). Yet, it seems that the more other species seem to mimic human behavior, as in zoos, the more popular they are.
Self and identity are associated concepts. Humans are uniquely able to take themselves as the object of their own thoughts (Mead, 1934). The ability to reflect on the self has deep implications for human behavior. For example, personal identity is often equated with ethnicity, which may be a concept applied to an individual or to a group. In extreme circumstances, discussed in Chapter Six, it may even become a euphemism for racism; that is, to be ethnic is some societies may mean that the ethnic member is socially ostracized by the group in power.
Identity may be conceived of as an unchanging fixed entity; however, it is a fluid concept. In this chapter, the reference is to the fact that individuals share the same history, origin or cultural heritage, even though their experiences may differ. For example, one might say he is an American, from the American culture; yet, he would have to define it further, perhaps by indicating that he is a child of Swedish immigrants who migrated to Minnesota. In short, the meaning of identity is a loose construction, somewhat mythicised (Abou, Spring, 1997). One's self identity is acculturated, which means that one acquires identity nonconsciously, not quite knowing how it happened. One gains a general semantic memory without having a specific episodic memory(Tulving, 1973). Identity is achieved but one may not be aware of the events and processes associated with the achievement. The concept of identity will be especially important in Chapters Five, Six, and Seven, where gender, ethnicity and age are discussed.
It has been said that nonverbal communication is where nature meets culture. Biological and social aspects of behavior are brought together in nonverbal communication. An important concept is that of "face". The concept of face is symbolic and it involves how individuals think of thmselves. It refers not only to the physical face, but to the symbolic aspects of self-presentation. The symbolic face is part and parcel of identity. Psycho-socio-cultural processes are imbedded in the concept of face.
To have face is to have self-respect (Ting-Toomey, 1994). In Chinese culture, for example, mien-tzu refers to both a psychological and a social meaning of face, one that is conferred upon a deserving individual. In China, people are concerned most with their place in the scheme of things, their interconnectedness, following Confucian ideals. Thus the sense of self, of face, in China is very different from that found in the United States where a strong sense of personal independence is fostered (Stipek, 1998).
In Japan, the word kao may refer to the personal body, to personal psychology ot to social behavior. In short, the concept of face implies self-presentation. Because cultures have different display rules for self-presentation, misunderstandings can arise when persons are not informed about the norms of the culture they are visiting. For example, gift giving is an important activity in both North Amerian and Asian cultures. An American might open a gift immediately but the Chinese person would be embarrassed or affronted, feeling a loss of face, were she required to open the gift immediately.
The physical face of course is part of human anatomy. Considerable research has been conducted dealing with the face and how it expresses emotions, referring to the facial primacy hypothesis (Ekman, Friesen, Ellsworth, 1972). Everyday sense tells us that when people frown, grimace or smile they mean something by it. Exactly what they mean is not always clear. People may mask their feelings with a smile; they may play act with a frown; they may grimace but not be in pain. The frozen smile of many Native Americans or various Asian groups is worn in public, masking the inner thought-world and feelings of the individual. In brief, the information in body kinetics is open to interpretation. People may interpret human gestures stereotypically or they may interpret them polysemically. A smile can mean different things to different people.
There may be a tendency for people to think of the senses as physiological mechanisms only, but the use of the senses, like the use of the face, is influenced by cultural meaning (Classen, 1997). Cultural values are expressed though the senses. Sensory symbolism refers to a social process. Were the readers of this book to travel to countries with contrasting historical and cultural backgrounds, they would note differences among cultures in the ways that they emphasize the senses-- seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or touching. For example, in oral cultures where there is little print or television influence there is less emphasis upon the specific use of the eyes relative to the other senses than is found in the United States where "the educated eye", so to speak, is emphasized.
Odors and smells vary radically from country to country illustrating the cultural habits and values of the country involved. Tactility and proximal closeness are valued differently by different countries and cultures. The English do not touch one another in public, nearly as much as do the Puerto Ricans, for example. People experience the world through their senses, but their senses are heavily influenced by cultural norms (Classen, 1997).
People even dream about sensate things. In experiments, thirty-three percent of men and forty percent of women in the United States could recall having senses of taste or smell in their dreams. Auditory scenes occurred in approximately 53 percent of all dreams reported. Smell and taste sensations were reported in only l% of the dreams (Zadra, Nielsen, Donderi, 1998).
It has been said that Americans hide and repress body odors, covering their bodies with perfumes. There is a blandness and sameness in American culture when it comes to body odors, according to this point of view. One ethnic group may claim that members of another group are identifiable by their body odors, as though individual members had body odor signatures.
National Geographic (Wysocki, 1987) reported the results of an international survey measuring smelling behaviors of men and women. The findings include the interesting results that females can smell better than can males and that some personal memories are based on smell. Subjects reported that they had experienced anosmia, or the loss of smell; of six categories of smell, 35 percent of the males and 29 percent of females were odor blind to androstenone (sweat) and galaxolide (musk). The study included the finding that smelling ability may be inherited. It may be inherited but it is overlaid by cultural factors. For example, people from various parts of the world difffered in their abilities to smell the six items. The smell scientist speculated that exposure to an element affects smelling abilities; therefore, different cultures, differentially exposed to smells, have different meanings and usages for smell.
The human ability to smell is not keen, at least when compared to the abilities of many lower order animals, such as dogs. Ethologists and animal communicologists show that nocturnal monkeys have a better sense of smell than do diurnal, or day monkeys Many animals, of course, use smells to mark their territories. This marking ability is less obvious in humans, although it seems to occur. People may be identified by the perfume odors that they wear, which is a matter of choice. Not a matter of choice are the body odors that are emitted from the skin; pheromone research may reveal how the human body emits barely detectable odors. Perhaps the role of human pheromones will become clear as research continues. The New York Times reported on September 28, 2000 that a human pheromone link may have been found by researchers at Rockefeller and Yale Universities. Meanwhile, advertisements proclaim the virtues of this or that perfume product.
Olfaction apparently works differently from the other senses. The olfactic bulb feeds directly into the most primitive part of the brain where it affects emotions, cognition and sexual response. Some evolutionists believe that the sense of smell was stronger in early evolutionary times than it is now, making it somewhat of an imperfect relic. Certainly arachmologists, or people who study human smelling behavior, and perfume makers are keenly interested in smell (Arachmologists, Nov 10, 1997).
For example, touching behavior has been studied quite thoroughly. In the United States, touching activity varies by gender, by place in society and by empowerment. A touching orientation is more commonly associated witih females than it is with males (Dolin, Booth-Butterfield, 1993). Social touch has been related to social competence by some researchers (Jones, 1994). Interestingly, it has been said that Americans suffer from tactile deprivation noted, especially, in the situation in which a mother, herself deprived of a healthy attachment style during early childhood, fails to bond with her child through gentle touch (Bowlby, 1969; Jones & Brown, 1996). The power of gentling and bonding has been amply demonstrated not only in human studies but in studies or lower order primates. Grooming, licking and nudging are intimate ways to help lower order animals raise their offspring (Eibl-Eibestadt, 1975). Healthy human attachment and growth depend on the caring touch as well. Indeed, childhood psychotherapists speak of attachment disorders that afflict young children who have not been cared for in loving, tactile ways.
The study of the emotions has received considerable attention because they invariably accompany both verbal and nonverbal expression. The spoken language reveals emotional affect (Besnier, 1990). The primacy of the face in showing emotions has been noted. Research suggests that emotional expressions as shown by the face have minimum universality; that is, various cultures share in common some features of emotional expression (Russell & Fernandez-Dols, 1997) although they may interpret emotional expressions variously. For example, a smile is used by members of all cultures; however, the meaning of the smile is interpreted by taking account of the display rules in that culture. A smile may be used to mask hidden feelings and people can create a facial display without having a corresponding emotion. Indeed, it has been suggested that females in many cultures tend to exhibit a politeness bias, using a smile to do so. The argument about the universality of both language and emotions has continued over the past few years.
Six emotions, known in all cultures, have been studied fairly intensively. They are surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness. Sometimes the emotion labeled interest is added, resulting in the acronym SADFISH (Ekman, 1975). When surprise is shown in these studies, the brows are raised, the eyelids are opened wide and the white of the eye shows more than it does when the eyes are in a resting position. Facial blending, or the interaction of the eyes with the rest of the face is common, resulting in perceived anger or disgust, for example. Attempts have been made to see if members of different cultures perceive the displayed emotions in the same way. It appears, however, that there is minimal universality. That is, members of different cultures will view the emotions in different ways due to enculturation. Some emotions are easier to interpret than are others. Studies reveal that subjects are better at detecting happiness than they are at detecting disgust, for example. Perhaps they are better at displaying certain emotions as well.
Framing Emotions
Researchers have shown how emotional signals are used adaptively and when they are formed in a child's life ( Morris, 1992). For example, distress signals are displayed at birth, the baby emerging into a booming, buzzing world of confusion. The social smile is displayed between 8 and 10 months of age; joy is shown by the age of 5-7 months. In short, childhood growth is patterned.(Bruner, 1990) These behaviors may vary from culture to culture. Emotions are revealed in culture-specific ways. Again, it must be emphasized that humans slowly and gradually learn how to take account of the social influences found in their cultures; they make sense of those influences and develop lines of action accordingly. They learn how to present themselves appropriately in a variety of contexts.
The human body mediates all reflection and action upon the world (Lock, 1993) and it has often been the subject of topics dealing with reproduction, the emotions, human sexuality and shamanism. It is assumed that culture provides the necessary labels for biological and behavioral acts (Ellen, 1984). Cultural symbols for the body vary from culture to culture. The human body has been somatyped in various ways.
Action theorists explain that there is a mind-body connection; actions are tied into antecedent thoughts. Mind, self and interacton are inherently bound together. People often make careful plans and then follow them after which they are able to explain what they have done (Vallacher & Wegner, 1985). Following the SI approach, humans make sense of what they are doing. Their lines of action are often carefully crafted, even though, at times, humans seem to be on automatic pilot, doing even complicated things, apparently without thinking or planning. Researchers refer to body actions as kinesics.
The term kinesics is often translated as body language, body idiom or gesture language (Key, 1980), each suggesting the intimately connected nature of gestures and kinesics. Posture is the key element in kinesics. Gestures are usually localized involving only the face, the upper torso or the hands and fingers. Emblems, unlike much kinesic behavior, can stand alone, without verbal accompaniment. The shaking of hands, a ritual in many cultures, may be done without words being spoken; yet people know what it means. Cultural patterns are revealed in greeting rituals varying considerably from country to country. The Russian bear hug, the Eskimo nose rub, the arm grasp and the handshake are greeting patterns that are assumed to be the norm in each culture in which they are used. It is important to note that people are not required to know the origin of their greeting habits in order to use them efficiently and effectively. People present themselves to others using simple handshakes, gestures or gazes.
Body presentational practices vary widely between cultures. For example, women in the United States are taught to keep their legs together, unless they are wearing jeans, while men cross their legs. Inheriting the Judeo-Christian tradition, young Americans learn the place of modesty, although they may choose to ignore the underlying assumptions. Traditional Asian cultures require women to walk behind men. In India, women whose husbands died, were expected to be burned on the same funeral pyre with their dead husbands. This extreme practice, called suttee in India, is now disallowed, but it revealed the values and practices associated with some classes in India.
Hidden cultural display rules are obviously powerful; members must make sense of these display rules and incorporate them or risk being shunned or even banned in some circumstances. Indeed, shunning, or the banning of members for failing to fulfill the expectations of the social group of which they are members, is not an uncommon practice, even in the United States. Marrying an English, a reference to people outside their faith, is forbidden among conservative Amish groups. By marrying outside the faith and practices of the Amish, a person risks losing Amish identity. As mentioned, some cultural groups impress upon their members very clearly what is expected of them. Other groups are loosely knit, permitting a variety of behavioral patterns.
Twenty key gestures, including actions such as the fingertip kiss, the head toss and the thumps up gestures, were analyzed in 25 different countries, within 40 different contexts, involving 15 different languages. Showing pictographs, researchers asked the 1200 research subjects what each pictograph meant to them (Morris, 1994). The results showed that natives in neighboring countries often shared similar interpretations of the gestures while more remote natives varied in their interpretations. Distance was a key factor. The authors concluded that prejudice and religious beliefs, incorporated in language, influenced the gestural meanings. For example, where it is forbidden to display explicit sexual gestures, it may also be forbidden to display a simple finger kiss. The display rules in various cultures signal what is appropriate and what is taboo. A very large array of nonverbal gestures have been categorized and sorted out; the result is that a dictionary of emblems is available to the researcher or reader (Morris, 1994).
Body language complements verbal language in a synchronous manner (Bull, 1987). When humans speak vocally, their bodies "speak" nonvocally. As a topic shifts, the body may shift; even the vocal pattern changes at the end of a sentence. Eye use is correlated with the flow of speech as well. A person may look away or down, when she ends a sentence. In short, the senses and the body parts work together in human interaction, blending in a reportoire of bodily action. The eyes, however, have primacy in interaction.
Although people learn how to use their eyes in interaction, learning it from their parents and peers, even congenitally blind speakers use their eyes despite their lack of visual models (Iverson, Goldin-Meadow, 1998). Further, it has been shown that babies born blind smile just as do their sighted peers. In fact, they apparently use body gestures structured like sentences and words. Therefore, a nature-nurture controversy exists, as to the sociobiological origin of gestures. Continued research will ferret out the relationships between what comes "naturally" and what is learned.
Meanwhile, it seems clear that context affects the use of gestures. Symbolic interactionism emphasizes the creative nature of human communication; humans must take into account the social influences of context, but they act on their own behalf, creatively. For example, it is considered inappropriate for young Japanese children to look their elders directly in the eyes. Contrarily, in the United States, it is believed that a person is lying if she or he does not look the adult in the eyes! The stereotypical perception of the shifty-eyed person is that she or he is lying, trying to deceive. It is sometimes said that the eyes are the window to the soul in this context. What might this mean?
Symbols are cultural products (Strecker, 1988). They are short-cuts to meaning. Created by humans, they take on a life of their own, existently independently of individuals. Symbols represent cultural beliefs, customs and practices. They exist "out there", enduring over time. Human language is symbolic; the human body is symbolized. Even human tools become symbolic; the hammer is associated with the carpenter; books are associated with people in academia, and so on. Symbols are carriers of coded information (Szanto, 1991, Aug) providing meaning to the individuals who use them. The computer is a tool that provides and organizes information; it also symbolizes a level of understanding to its users.
Symbols may be iconic and they may signal things. Elvis Presley, is to many, an American icon. The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of hope to many; it is visually iconic, sending meaningful signals to people who immigrate to the United States. Symbols are indicators of the aspirations, belief systems and neuroses of the cultures that generate them (Page, 1992). Thus, the cross has come to signify Christian cultures; the Swastika, once an honored symbol in India, became a hideous symbol used by Hitler. All cultures have symbols, such as flags, to help identify and unite the members of that society. In short, people respond to symbols, as a form of signal response. Humans create symbols and they become part of cultural transmission. Many of them are master symbols; that is, they enjoy special status among people. For example, the cat became a powerful symbol in early Egypt after it rid the granaries of mice and rats. The cat was gradually elevated to mythical, symbolic status.
Modern symbols are exported in the diffusion of innovation (Rogers & Shoemaker, 1971) process. The logos of modern, powerful companies are exported around the globe, influencing various cultures. People may think of Nestles or Hersheys when they think about chocolate, the association having been made so clear by those chocolate companies. People who live outside that influence, of course, do not recognize the symbols. Inhabitants of the deep forests of New Guinea know less about Western symbols that do the French, for example. Their vocabulary does not include names for symbols with which they are unfamiliar. Yet, some symbols are known throughout the world. The author bought a Coca-Cola from a small boy at the top of a pyramid in the heart of the Guatemalan jungle. Vegetarian hamburgers are sold by MacDonald's in India.
Iconography is a field of study devoted to the study of visual symbols. An icon is a symbolic image. They exist in all cultures, some sacred, and others secular. The minnarets of the Muslim faith are recognized throughout the Muslim world, as are the veils worn by women. Words, too, can be iconic. For example, Superman comics contained the words "zow" and "kerplat" to indicate the physical prowess of Superman. Computer literate people know what an emoticon is but the young man driving the Amish horse-drawn carriage may know little about them. Context, once again, is important in human communication. It is suggested that members of highly developed technological societies are in the midst of an icon revolution, given the fast pace of change.
Symbols need not be physical objects or icons. Activities, relationships, events, gestures and ritualistic activities are symbolic, too (Turner, 1986). People make symbolic sense of these activities. Symbols and their uses change over time. One point of view suggests that dominant American symbols once associated with religion or faith, both considered vertical dimensions, are now replaced by symbols that are rooted in a mass culture. The stock market, for example, is conceived from this point of view as a bottomline activity. The God(s) of the rural farmer are not those of the modern businessman, the assumption goes. The plow, not a product of mass culture, has given over to the computer and television, both mass products.
In pre-technical oral societies the NBC peacock is not known, but the symbols and rites of the shaman and the spiritual diviners may be. The churinga is a symbol known in primal and oral cultures, but not known to most Westerners. The Artic Eskimo, whose traditional culture is rapidly dissipating, believed in a mythical goddess, half human and half fish, called Sedna or Takanaluk, who lived in a cave under the sea, where she kept the animals of the sea and gave them to the Eskimo who followed the proper rituals (Hinnells, 1997). The Plains Indians used the tipi, referred to as teepees by outsiders, which was conical in shape, representing cosmological ideas; its structure represented the native's world or universe. Fire within the tipi represented the Great Mysterious and the smoke going through the hole in the top of the tipi represented liberation. The Navajo tribe, which borrowed and used the tipi, have similar traditions, although their structures are more likely to be round-shaped hogans.
Symbols may be dominant or instrumental, depending on their use in rituals or ceremonies. For example, traditionally, the wearing of the Japanese kimono is an expression of transcendent cultural values and the way they are worn is instrumental. Young Japanese girls are taught to move so that the lines of the kimono are kept straight; only the proper amount of flesh is shown to the public. Further, young Japanese ladies must not step up to another level within a home withour taking their shoes off. They should cover their mouth when they laugh and control their emotions.
Language use expresses more than the spoken message; there is an intimate connection between body expression and language development. For example, the human voice has acoustic properties, such as speed of talking, pitch or intensity, which condition the message stream and affect how a message is interpreted. An excited voice conveys different information to the listener than does a languorous voice. People determine, often stereotypically, the character or personalities of others based on their vocal patterns (Mahl, 1987). Voices are thought to be sexy, masculine, feminine, weak or strong, based almost exclusively on how they sound to the listener (Pittam, 1994). The trained voice of the opera singer is very different from the voice of the throat singer of a remote tribe, their training being based on very different cultural assumptions.
Researchers indicate that a voice in Western societies conveys masculinity when it resonates strongly; a mellow, more warm voice conveys femininity. Some research suggests that humans have vocal signatures. Indeed, people recognize one another by the vocal patterns being displayed. They know who is on the other end of the telephone without seeing them.
Cultural regions vary paralinguistically. It is shown, for example, that Mediterranean people and people from Latin American countries are more likely to be demonstrative and to use more emotion laden speech than are people from English cultures. These are tendencies. Problems arise, of course, when people create stereotypes of others from cultures different from their own. In another vein, the concept of floor management is associated with paralinguistic behavior. People hold and maintain the floor when they interact with others. For example, it has been shown that members of Japanese culture tend to talk simultaneously but that their nonverbal behavior is rhythmic and coordinated . They use back-channeling effectively, letting the other party know that they are listening. Backchanneling can take the form of uh huh or of silent attention. Holding the floor too long or making huge gestures while speaking is considerate impolite to the Japanese (Hayashi, 1996).
Because of cultural differences, Japanese and Americans, each unfamiliar with the others' display rules may feel a sense of arhythmicity. Studies show that American males, for example, use more floor space than do females and they tend to be more aggressive in their behaviors, in contrast to the Japanese. Thus, the Japanese and the Americans may use different rules and assumptions about turn-taking, turn yielding and turn requesting, each critical pieces of floor management (Hayashi, 1996). Even using the eyes to signal the end of a turn may vary between cultures.
In Arab countries, loudness may be suggestive of strength and sincerity and softness may suggest weakness and deviousness (Hall, 1966). Members of black communities use pauses differently than do members of white cultures. A faster speed of talking is associated with Latin cultures compared to people in the United States.
The concept of voice-set is important (Pittam, 1994). Two people, perhaps an older person and a younger person, may utter the same phrase, with the same emphasis, but differences will be shown by their set of voice, a fundamental part of their physiological and social development. Age, gender and ethnicity and even the influence of technologies are shown paralinguistically in human behaviors. The role of silence, not well investigated cross-culturally, is keen; by saying and doing nothing, humans influence one another, as in the silent stare of the mother who is disciplining her child. Silence plays an important role in nonverbal communication.
Nonverbal communication involves both individual and collective behaviors. Performative acts, resulting in theatre, ceremony, ritual and spectacle are forms of nonverbal communication that remind people of their culture, their past, present or future, and provide means of identity (Beeman, 1993; Turner, 1986). Ritual performances in Bali or New Guinea, such as Trance and Dance, may seem bizarre to Americans, but they reveal the power of meaningful ritual to the people involved. The kabuki, in Japan, a shrine-based folk dance and drama, and the Native-American rain dance are familiar to people through movies and television, but most Americans never see in person the more mysterious rituals of people who live in oral cultures.
Rituals are communal activities bonding people together. Just as individual nonverbal communication is often intentional, collective nonverbal communication is intentional although participants may not fully understand the symbolic meanings behind the activity. Most people are familiar with the ritualistic and ceremonial activities found in marriage, courtship and sports activities, but they may fail to see or understand the deeper meaning of these performances, even though they take part in them.
Except in very primal and past-oriented societies, rituals and ceremonies change, especially when Western technology permeates cultures. In societies marked by change, new rituals and ceremonies are invented or old ones are modified. In contrast, oral societies are slow to change; for example, the Yanesha tribes in Amazonia write history into the landscape, using topographs to convey ritual meaning to members of the tribe. The Yanesha are preliterate but their use of topographic writing successfully transmits cultural history and symbols to new members of the culture (Santos-Granero, 1998). Contrast that ritualism with the modern phenomenon called the Rave, where some young Americans ritualistically take part in large musical gatherings, sometimes involving drug use.
Framing Initiation Rituals
In Australia, among the Aranda, male rite initiation includes being tossed in the air and hit with sticks. the young person may be circumcised and the head opened, scarred by having a name carved on the forehead. They may even be smoked and dried out over fires, as part of the initiation rite into manhood (Houseman, 1998). These rituals are used to bind the past and the present together in specific nonverbal ritualistic and collective acts.
In the United States and other countries, hazing can take the form of painful encounter. Outlawed by the military and by many universities and colleges, hazing pain might be psychological or physical. As part of the teenage culture, it may be a way to embarrass a new member of a club, such as making him walk with a can on his head, or, it may be an act of force, requiring the recruit to get drunk by drinking exorbitantly.
Wedding customs contain aspects of ritual and ceremony together, varying widely throughout the world. For example, in times of slavery in the United States, African men and women were not allowed to marry, but a couple could publicly declare their mutual love by jumping over a broomstick to the accompaniment of drums.
Ritualistic, ceremonial collective nonverbal communication exists in all cultures defined by underlying cultural codes, histories and beliefs. They occur in war and in religion; they are part of the daily lives of the members of each culture, binding them to the culture. Such activities may be passed on from generation to generation by story-tellers, shamans, priests and others. In technologically advanced cultures, they are passed along by the media, including libraries. Each generation passes along to the next that which has been received. It traditional societies, the older person passes on knowledge to the young; in modern societies, the young may teach the older person, as is often the situation with the use of computers.
While it is true that many preliterate natives or citizens live in cultural environments that have few, if any, modern technologies, most people live in environments that have been influenced by the use of modern technology. The lives of preliterate tribes in the Amazon jungle are very different from the lives of people who live in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Berlin or New York City. All aspects of their existence are different, from food gathering to burial ceremonies.
The general environment deeply influences human behaviors, referring to both the natural world and the social world, interacting together. The reliance upon plants, roots, snakes, bugs and various worms and grubs for food is not uncommon in rural societies where modern, packaged foods do not exist. An example from the Northern latitudes where Eskimos ate whale and seal blubber, used the fur from polar bears and produced burnable supplies of oil from their fat is another contrasting example of the influence of the general environment upon human behavior. In modern Western societies, the influence of the general environment is just as keen, although it may not be so easily discerned. One of the influences is noted in how humans perceive time.
Time, like space, is a hidden dimension affecting nonverbal communication. Western cultures are said to be clock-bound, having a standard meaning for time, a mechanical ideal (Bruneau, 1977; Gonzales & Zimbardo, 1990). Members are clock-bound. For example, people in management positions in the United States often take courses in time management. Vacations, on the other hand, are designed to help people forget the clock. Views of time are shaped by perceptions that are rooted in cultural and social codes. Cultures that focus on the present use objective, linear time. Time in the United States, is a powerful influence on daily behavior (Deegan,1989).
Scholars suggest that there are many forms of time. For example, there are biological, perceptual, conceptual, psychological and social concepts of time(Bruneau, 1977). Time may be monochronic or polychronic (Hall, 1973) indicating that some societies have a uniform and singular meaning of time while others have multiple meanings. Following this reasoning, people in the United States have a monochronic view of time. Western time begins in Greenwich, England.
By contrast, the Navajo tribe marked time by following the seasons. Watches were not useful in traditional Navajo culture, although that is changing. It is not uncommon for Native Americans, especially those who belong to the Longhouse tradition, to ignore the time of the Christianized White man, who is bound to the clock. Native American children who attend schools in the White world may arrive late following their own time schedule. This behavior, of course, is not designed to disturb teachers or principals. Rather, it reflects how time is conceived in the Longhouse tradition, as on the Iriquois reservation in up-state New York. The author taught Indian children who either came from the Christian or the Longhouse side of the reservation, their values differing accordingly.
On a personal level, people know one another by their use of time. Some arrive at functions typically late or early. Some, as mentioned, seem to function best at night while others go to bed and rise early, like owls or sparrows. Humans have built-in and learned needs that affect how they behave in time. Married partners may be affected badly when one needs only two hours of sleep and the other needs ten! Personal time zones, or individualized ways of viewing time, have been outlined by researchers (Gonzalez & Zimbardo, 1990).
Lower order animal behavior has been studied showing how different species react to time changes. Both diurnal and seasonal changes are expressed in their behaviors, from feeding patterns to denning. Clearly, time and its correlates affect nonverbal communication. Even the aging process is cast in chronology. Time speaks! What it is saying must be interpreted.
With few exceptions, animals defend their territory. Although animals may allow other kinds of species into their territory, they are not likely to permit animals of its own species into that protected territory, especially during rutting or mating season, as in the case of deer. This territorial imperative operates differently in different species. For example, bears and moose range widely, but a chipmunk might stay in a relatively small area for a lifetime.
It is not clear that humans use territories in the same way, although human use of space appears, in some ways, to be an extension of the principle (Ardrey, 1966). Humans create national boundaries and they keep enemies out of their territory. Humans put fences between themselves and their neighbors. In short, humans have a sense of home, of place, of situation to which they attach meanings and emotions. Those places may be marked by language usage, by urban buildings or rural fields, by status in community, or by some other means. Humans create and respond to places, such as sacred places, the south versus the north, features in the environment and so on (Gallagher, 1993).
Culture influences how humans use space. What is crowding to an American does not appear to be so to a Chinese person, migrating to America, who may choose, perhaps from necessity, to live in very crowded conditions, several persons to a room. Apparently they endure the crowded conditions out of economic need but their cultural norms influence them as well. The Chinese are more communal than are Americans (Takaki, 1993). Chinese, especially those raised under Confucianism, are taught about we-ness as opposed to I-ness. Thus, a Chinese person in this example can tolerate smaller spaces than can an American (NPR, Mar 23, 1997).
The Navajo sense of place, their spiritual homelands, is associated with the New Mexico and Arizona border. Cubans, who emigrated to the United States, under forced exile, established Little Havana in Miami, as a home away from home, although they settled in many other places as well. The Chinese who came to the United States to work in the gold mines and railroad construction gradually moved into enclaves, such as Chinatown in the Bowery region of New York City. Black Americans, of course, have established homelands throughout the United States. People create a cultural sense of place. Their children are born into it and identify with it. Proxemics is a word that refers to space. Humans need their space just as lower order animals need their territories. In many ways, the rugged individualism of American life was expressed by the wide open West. "Go West young man" was a phrase that captured the ear of many young men and families. Their place was to be found in open spaces.
Cultures have been described as generally non-contact or contact (Hall, 1973); that is, some cultures emphasize the need for considerable personal space and others need less. Zero proxemics is a term used to express very close contact between humans. It is said that Latin Americans and Mediterraneans are basically contact cultures while many Western socieites, including Britain, reflect a non-contact orientation. Even intimate eye-contact may be shunned in non-contact countries. Accidental touching in elevators is uncomfortable to many people who are 'civilly inattentive'(Goffman, 1967) in the situation.
Framing Proxemics
Cultures have been lumped together by whether they were contact or non-contact cultures. Findings suggest that Greek and Italians in dyads use touch more than do English, French or Dutch people in dyads. Scots and Irish, apparently, use an intermediate amount of touch. People older than 40 years of age, in dyads, appear to use less touch than do people of younger ages. Although females appear to touch more than do males, the circumstances of their touching affect their behaviors. In short, cultural codes influence people to act along permissable lines of touching.
Sociometric research reveals that touching codes vary widely from culture to culture. Distance between males and females is required in many Muslim countries but in other contact cultures public displays of handholding are permitted. Professional people, such as doctors, exhibit professional touch, a type of touch that is not permitted in other situations (Jones, 1994). Space violation occurs when people invade the space of others without being invited.
Differences in the use of space by members of different cultures may lead to exaggerated or stereotyped perceptions. Many Latin Americans might consider North Americans to be cold and distant while many North Americans might say that Latin Americans like to breathe down your neck. Such stereotypes of course can lead to considerable confusion for travelers. Germans, it is thought, place a high value on orderliness and neatness, everything being in its appropriate place. Japanese, on the other hand, do not think of space as being empty, as an American might; interestingly, until recently, they did not name their streets. indeed, they did not have names for their streets in the age of rickshaws. Corners were special places for them (Leathers, 1978). In studying the spatial behaviors of members of various cultures, it is important to realize that not all members think or behave in the same ways.
Researchers have created a lexicon for space including such terms as primary, secondary, public, interactional and body territories to describe the patterned ways that humans use space (Altman, 1975). Body space is the space that a body takes up; primary space is personal, private space; secondary space may be a bar or church; home territory is under the exclusive control of certain groups, such as clubs; and interactional territory allows unfettered interaction movement.
The architecture of various cultures reflects the unwritten codes that influence the building of the structures. The Spanish plaza is found in cities in Hispanic countries; open spaces mark the Navajo culture. Migrating tribes in Africa build temporary homes for shelter, intended to last but a short time, perhaps a season. Space has symbolic meaning in each culture; its use reflects underlying values. Prisons are designed to restrict the use of space by inmates, as a form of punishment. Goffman referred to prisons as total institutions, places that controlled all aspects of a person's life. The use of space is an important aspect of nonverbal communication.
Symbolic interactionism is an approach that reveals how people live their lives and how they enact strategies for living. Humans try to make sense of the givens of their culture and to enact lines of action that make sense to them, whether they are engaging in dyadic or ceremonial interaction. People accept the stuff of culture; they also modify it. Either way, cultural influences on human behavior are profound.
As will be discussed in chapter eight, modern technologies are altering the landscape of human behavior, not only in highly developed modern states but around the globe. Technological diffusion is reshaping many cultures; as traditional and past oriented societies gain access to modern communicative technologies their social practices are altered. Communicative tools mediate human societies, transforming them.
One of the key changes wrought by global technologies, such as the internet, satellites, film and television and the emerging widespread use of the cell phone, is in the concept of geo-techno space. (3) No longer bound by national or regional boundaries, humans can be in touch with others instantly. Although the great digital divide discussed in chapter nine still exists, the communication landscape of the future will profoundly influence how humans act and interact in terms of time and place (Lebow, 1995, McLuhan, 1964;Mowlana, 1996).
Cyberplace, cyberspace, cyberreality are neologisms that reflect the changes that are occurring. It is true that many highly controlled societies, such as the Iraqi and the Chinese or other theocratic countries and groups, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, do not permit their citizens to interact with others on the internet, nor do they want their people to get their information from the Americans or from some other European media. It is also true that some highly remote tribes and societies do not have access to modern communicative technologies. Nevertheless, the great technological diaspora is reshaping many cultures around the globe. Nonverbal behaviors and practices are reshaped accordingly.
Through the enculturation process, human beings learn to identify themselves and to behave in accordance with cultural display rules. culture. Cultures vary one from the other along dimensional lines, such as the matriarchal or patriarchal orientation or the past-future orientation. Humans learn about master symbols, customs and rituals in their cultures and employ them in meaningful ways. Symbols are deeply immersed in the thoughtways of any culture. Not only are they deeply influenced by the many symbols of their cultures, humans are also deeply influenced environmental factors, such as how time and space are defined and used.The diffusion of technology has led to the emergence of a new geo-techno dimension and it is beginning to affect all cultures around the globe. Time, space, place are altered by modern communicative technologies. In chapter three, important social processes that influence human nonverbal communication will be discussed.
Questions for Thought and Discussion
Becker, H. S., & McCall, M. M. (Eds.) (1990). Symbolic Interactionism and Cultural Studies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Desmond, J. C. (1999). Staging Tourism: Bodies on Display from Waikiki to Sea World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hall, E. T. (1973). The Silent Language. Garden City, NY: Anchor/Doubleday.
Samovar, L. A., & Porter, R. E. (1988). Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Strecker, I (1988). The Social Practice of Symbolization: An Anthropological Analysis. New York: Athlone Press.
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