Gestures The Do S And Taboos Of Body Language Around The World Term paper
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Axtell, Roger E. Gestures: The DO’s and
TABOOS of Body Language Around the World. Jon Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1998
-- Rev. and expanded edition.
Over the past decade the author has been
presenting seminars, speeches and workshops around the United States on
the subject of international behavior. This book is the result of accumulation
of more than ten years of research on the subject and it includes research
on his travels to England, Germany, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the
Philippines. All this reinforced a conviction that gestures are powerful
communicators used by people all over the world.
The purpose of this book is to let people
know how powerful gestures can be when used correctly or incorrectly. He
also wants you to know how a gesture can mean one thing here and another
thing somewhere else, something as simple as a wave good bye, could get
you into a lot of trouble in another country.
This book was broken down into seven chapters:
Chapter 1, illustrated with numerous examples,
is that not only are gestures and body language powerful communicators,
but different cultures use gestures and body language in dramatically different
ways.
Chapter 2 discusses the most popular gestures
found around the world, beginning with how we greet each other. Shaking
hand is not the universal greeting. In fact, there are at least a half-dozen
other social greetings - even different ways of shaking hands. This chapter
also deals with farewells, beckoning, insulting, touching and other types
of gestures.
Chapter 3 gets into the special types of
gestures such as, American Sign Language, Tai Chi, flirting & kissing.
Chapter 4 is designed to help you learn
or trace a particular gesture, using scores of drawings.
Chapter 5 describes what the author calls
the ultimate gesture, which is simply the "smile". It is rarely misunderstood,
scientist believe this particular gesture releases chemicals in the brain
called endorphins into the system that create a mild feeling of euphoria.
It also may help you slip out of the prickliest or difficult situation's
world wide.
Chapter 6 is an important list of gestures
to keep in mind. It is compiled of 20 gestures that can help you separate
right from rude, and rude from crude.
Chapter 7 is a listing of country-by-country
common gestures and body languages. They group the countries by major geographic
region.
The organization of the book was a combination
of narrative and topical. The basic point of view of the entire book was
that if you are planning to leave the United States and travel to another
country, you better either keep your hands in you pockets at all times
or know the proper gesture for the country you intend on visiting.
I would like to site some examples.
An American teenager was hitchhiking in
Nigeria. A carload of locals passed him. The car screeched to a halt. The
locals jumped out and promptly roughed up the teenage visitor. Why? Because
in Nigeria, the gesture commonly used in America for hitchhiking (thumb
extended upward) is considered a very rude signal.
An American couple on an auto tour in Australia
was stopped by a police officer in Sydney for failing to signal before
turning. Since they were tourists the officer gave them only a friendly
warning. Relieved, the American man responded with a smile and the thumbs-up
sign. The police officer became enraged, ordered the couple out of the
car, called a backup, searched the car, and finally gave the driver an
expensive ticket. Later, back in their hotel and recounting their experience,
the tourist learned that in Australia the thumbs-up gesture means "screw
you!"
As you can see this book has a humorous,
but yet serious overtone. It covers important aspects of body languages
& gestures in society which is serious stuff, that has a very strong
impact on all that come in contact with you. Yet the author is able to
express it in a comical nature. I enjoyed the book immensely.
There are many ways the ideas in this book
can be related to sociology. In fact the whole book is directly related
to the subject of sociology especially the culture aspect of it. I will
explain in the following paragraphs.
Anthologists divide our actions and gestures
into three broad categories: instinctive, coded and acquired.
Instinctive gestures are those we do almost
unconsciously. An example would be when we are suddenly shocked or surprised,
we tend to slap the back of our heads.
Coded, or technical, gestures are created
by preestablished agreement. For example hand signals used by TV directors,
referees, umpires and brokers in the stock market.
Acquired gestures, meaning our socially
generated and acquired gestures. This grouping of gestures has been loosely
and informally collected among separate societies. The acquired gestures
come from different cultures. Each individual culture or sub-culture has
its very own acquired gestures or mannerisms.
I learned the difference between what we,
as Americans, consider to be consensual in the area of gestures. If you
attempt to take your American gestures and attitudes to another country,
you're in for quite the culture shock. An example of the culture shock
you may experience if you were to enter a European home would be that they
always keep the bathroom door shut. Even when it is not occupied. As where
an American home usually keeps its bathroom door partially open to indicate
that the it is unoccupied. So in Europe, you would always knock on the
door first.
Touching is something that we as North
Americans are not big on. We are not touch-oriented. With good friends,
we may occasionally do some touching of the forearm or shoulder. We may
even hug our good friends, but almost never do we hug casual acquaintances.
Asians even join us in the shunning of such bodily contact. Latinos and
Middle Easterners seem to dote on it with hearty embraces and warm pats
on the back. In these places you may even see two male friends walking
hand-in-hand down the street together, and all it signifies is friendship.
If you were to see that on any street in the U.S. the first thing we as
Americans would think is " Hey those guys are homosexuals".
The differences in culture are amazing,
Especially in the areas of gestures. A person lacking knowledge of this
could find himself in hot water if he were to visit one of our neighboring
countries. Things that we do strictly out of habit...
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