I know we've talked about gestures as a part of communication before, but there was a great article in the Chicago Tribune today about the International Society for Gesture Studies that is meeting this week at Northwestern University (only a few miles from us), bringing together hundreds of resesarchers in how people use their bodies to communicate.

I thought it interesting that people don't know, for sure, which came first, words or gestures. Yet, the study of gestures (is there a word for it? Gesturology ) didn't emerge until 1941, at least according to the article. I am suspicious of that; knowing academics, I can't imagine that it wasn't studied before that.

If by words you really mean communicative sounds then I could understand where there might be a debate on whether they or communicative gestures came first. Creatures have been performing communicative gestures probably for nearly as long as there have been sensory organs to detect them.

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I can't imagine that it wasn't studied before that.

I entirely agree with you. Just because nobody's decided to make a thing a research project doesn't mean that the thing itself doesn't exist.

After all, nothing at all was the subject of a research project prior to the invention of research projects themselves.

Gestures are a part on non-verbal communication (the generally accepted term in the training business for what is popularly known as "body language") and non-verbal communication is very important, even amongst very literate and articulate people.

It's a topic that has been studied a great deal recently and one of the more popular writers on the subject in one whom I have mentioned here previously, Allan Pease and his wife Barbara.

I know I've mentioned them before, but here goes. Anthropologists often study kinesics (gestures) and proxemics (proximity of people when interacting). There was a branch of rhetoric called chironomia that dealt with with gesture during speech or acting. The latter should not be confused with chiromancy, aka palmistry / palmreading, which in turn has nothing to do with an enchiridion which is a fancy word for a handbook or a manual. Surgeon, and its archaic spelling, chirurgeon, as both from this same Greek root, kheir 'hand', ultimately from the PIE root *ghes 'hand' which also yields Latin praesto 'at hand'. The flip side of something being studied before it became an academic pursuit, is that something like phrenology is not necessarily the same discipline as psychology or forensic medicine.

Well, I was just reporting on a very interesting conference that took place last week in my area. I do know we've discussed this here before.

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Just because nobody's decided to make a thing a research project doesn't mean that the thing itself doesn't exist.

Richard, I think the author was only referring to research studies. I am still skeptical, though it's not my field of study.

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I am still skeptical, though it's not my field of study.

Sceptical of the science of non-verbal behaviour, do you mean?

No, skeptical that there weren't any reseach studies on gestures before 1941. I am not that knowledgeable about the study of gestures, though, so I don't know. It's just a gut feeling.

I'm inclined to agree with you. When one considers how important are gestures and other aspects of non-verbal communication when one is trying to detect lies, I'd be quite sure that the intelligence services would have researched this.

Was it you or Ken who spoke about the difficulties experienced in training US spies, who were often detected by the way they used their cutlery? In Europe most people use their knives and forks simultaneously, as opposed to the common US practice of cutting the food first and then simply using the fork to eat it.

Certainly an aspect of non-verbal behaviour.

Yes, I had read about that. While use of cutlery might be non-verbal behaviour, it isn't really considered a gesture, is it?

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it isn't really considered a gesture, is it?

True. Gestures are only one aspect of non-verbal behaviour, just as speaking is only one aspect of verbal behaviour.

Here's an interesting text on chironomy (literally, 'laws of the hand' in Greek) in the ancient world: specifically hand gestures and music.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
... the International Society for Gesture Studies... meeting this week at Northwestern University (only a few miles from us), bringing together hundreds of resesarchers in how people use their bodies to communicate...

I don't know why, Kalleh, but when I read your summary, I immediately pictured some Monty-Python-like gathering-- a gestural variation on the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch, complete with scuffles breaking out during 'lectures' on rude gestures.

Love your imagination! I just thought of it being a mundane conference.