PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

As the facts about body language are studied and

analysed and it is gradually elevated to a science, it

becomes available as a tool in the study of other sciences.

There was a recent report, from the Fifty-fifth Annual

Convention of the Speech Association of America, by

Professor Stanley E. Jones in which he applied bodylanguage

principles to challenge Dr Hall's statement that

a basic difference between cultures lies in the way they

handle space. Latin Americans, he said, stand closer when

they talk than Chinese or Negroes, and Arabs stand even

closer than Latins do.

Professor Jones, after working for two years in

Harlem, Chinatown, Little Italy and Spanish Harlem, all

ethnic areas of Manhattan in New York City, produced evidence
 that this pattern changes. He believes that

conditions of poverty have forced these people to change

some of their cultural behaviour. According to him, there

is a culture of poverty that is stronger than any ethnic

subcultural background.

Professor Jones, discussing his paper in a Press interview,

said, 'When I began studying the behaviour

patterns for subcultures living in New York's so-called

melting pot, I expected to find that they would maintain

their differences. Instead I was tremendously surprised to

discover that poverty conditioned them to behave with

remarkable similarity.'

In overcrowded areas with poor housing, Professor

Jones found that virtually everybody, regardless of their

ethnic background, stood about one foot apart.

Here is a sociological use of the growing science of

body language in an attempt to discover how poverty

affects culture. What Professor Jones' findings seem to

indicate is that the culture of the American poor overrides

ethnic and national distinctions. America has become a

melting pot, but it is the quality of poverty that melts

down the barriers to produce a common body language.

It would be interesting to take this work further and

see what other areas besides space are influenced by

poverty, or to carry it in the other direction and see

if wealth also breaks down the ethnic rules of body

language. Are the forces of economics stronger than

those of culture?

There are any number of possible studies open to the

future student of body language, and the beauty of it all

is that a minimal amount of equipment is necessary. While

I know of a number of sophisticated studies that have

been done with videotape and sixteen-millimetre film and

dozens of student volunteers, I also know of a perfectly bedroom
 overlooked a street telephone box in New York City.

He used an eight-millimetre motion-picture camera to

film as much footage of people using the box as his allowance

would permit, and he then used the family projector

to slow up motion while he noted and identified each movement.

I know another, older student who is working towards

his doctorate by studying the way people avoid each

other on a crowded street and on a not-so-crowded street.

' When there is enough space,' he explained, 'they wait

till they're about ten feet apart and then each gives the

other a signal so they can move around each other in

opposite directions.' He hasn't yet discovered the exact

signal or how it is used to convey which direction each

will take.

Sometimes, of course, the signals are confused and the

two people come face to face and both move to the right

and then to the left in unison and keep up this silly dance

till they stop, smile apologetically and then move on.

Freud called it a sexual encounter. My friend calls it

kinesic stuttering.

Body language as a science is in its infancy, but this

book has explored some of the ground rules. Now that

you know them, take a close look at yourself and your

friends and family. Why do you move the way you do?

What does it signify? Are you dominant or subservient in

your kinesic relationship to others? How do you manage

space? Are you its master or do you let it control you?

How do you manage space in a business situation? Do

you knock on your boss' door and then walk in? Do you

come up to his desk and dominate him, or do you stop at a
 respectful distance and let him dominate you? Do you

allow him to dominate you as a means of placating him or

as a means of handling him?

How do you leave an elevator when you are with business

associates? Do you insist on being the last one off

because of the innate superiority such a gracious gesture

gives you? Or do you walk off first, allowing the others

to please you, taking their courtesy as if it were your due?

Or do you jockey for position? 'You first.' 'No, you.'

Which of all of these is the most balanced behaviour?

Which does the perfectly secure man indulge in? Think

about each one. Your guess is as good as a trained psychologist's.

This is still a beginning science.

Where do you position yourself in a lecture hall? At

the back where there is a certain amount of anonymity,

even though you may miss some fine points of the lecture,

or up front where you can hear and see comfortably but

where you are also conspicuous?

How do you function at an informal gathering? Do

you tie up your nervous hands with a drink? Do you

lean against a mantelpiece for security? It can serve as an

immobilizing force for half your body and you needn't

be concerned about what to say in body language - or

only half concerned. Except that the very way you lean is

betraying you!

Where do you sit? In a chair in the corner? In a group

of your friends, or near a stranger? Which is safe and

which is more interesting? Which spells security and

which spells maturity?

Start observing at the next party you go to: who are the

people who dominate the gathering? Why? How much is

due to body language and what gestures do they use to do it? "

Notice how people sit in subway carriages: how do they space themselves when the car is uncrowded? How do they cross their legs, feet and arms?

Hold the glance of a stranger a fraction longer than is

necessary and see what happens. You may be in for a rude

experience, and on the other hand, you may have a few

good experiences. You may find yourself speaking to

perfect strangers and liking it.

You know the groundwork and some of the rules.

You've been playing the game of body language unconsciously

all of your lifetime. Now start playing it

consciously. Break a few rules and see what happens. It

will be surprising and sometimes a bit frightening,

adventurous, revealing and funny, but I promise you it

won't be dull.