Anthropology. ". . . we respond to gestures with an extreme
alertness and, one might almost say, in accordance with an elaborate and secret
code that is written nowhere, known by none, and understood by all" (Sapir
1927:556; see below, Hand gestures).
Baby gestures.
1. "This article (Acredolo and Goodwyn 1985) presents the story of our
first 'Baby Signer,' Linda's daughter Kate who began to spontaneously create
symbolic gestures when she was about 12 months old. These were 'sensible'
gestures (like sniffing for 'flower' and arms-up for 'big'). We then made it
easy for her by modeling other simple gestures for things in which she was
interested and followed her progress in terms of both gestural and verbal
development" (from Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn's Baby Signs Research
web page). 2. Subsequently, Acredolo, Goodwin, and others applied their
findings about Baby Signs (a.k.a. symbolic gesturing), to teach and
encourage the use of symbolic gestures in infancy so as to improve verbal
language acquisition (see, e.g., Goodwyn, Acredolo, and Brown
(2000).
Cetology. "A sequence of three gestures LEFT, FRISBEE,
TAIL-TOUCH instructs the dolphin to swim with the frisbee that is to its left
with its tail flukes" (Montgomery 1990:B2).
Culture. Accompanying
hundreds of human-wide, universal gestures, such as the shoulder-shrug and smile
(which, themselves, may be shaped by culture) are hundreds of additional
gestures which must be learned to be understood (see NONVERBAL
COMMUNICATION, Kind of cues). Many of the latter, culturally
coded gestures--such as the hand ring (Italy), hand ring-jerk
(Great Britain), hand ring-kiss (France), and hand ring pull-side
(Holland)--have been identified by Desmond Morris (1994).
Hand
gestures. We respond to hand gestures with an extreme alertness because
dedicated nerve cells in our primate
brain's lower temporal lobe respond exclusively to hand
outlines, positions, and shapes (Kandel et al.
1991:458-59).
Paleontology of gesture. ". . . there is a primate
(or perhaps mammalian or even vertebrate) level [of nonverbal communication]
that contains the gestural primitives common to all people and in some instances
all primates or all mammals. Examples are gestures implying bigness as signs of
threat or intimidation [see LOOM], and gestures implying smallness as signs of
submission [see CROUCH]. Loudness and softness in vocal communication have
the same import. In this context, Givens (1986) has called for a 'paleontology
of gesture'" (Armstrong et al. 1995:6-7).
Primatology,
chimpanzees. ". . . bonobos often add so-called finger-flexing, in which the
four fingers of the open hand are bent and stretched in rapid alternation,
making the [outstretched-hand gestured] invitation [i.e., the request for food,
support, or bodily contact] look more urgent" (Waal and Lanting 1997:29).
Salesmanship. "Rehearse the speed at which you
gesture, either in a mirror or on videotape. Quick, jerky movement belies a calm
interior or voice" (Delmar 1984:48).
Sea lion gestures. "Four
gestures, which indicate WHITE, SMALL, FOOTBALL and TAIL tell the sea lions to
find the small white football and touch it with its tail" (Montgomery
1990:B2).
Sociology. "Following Wundt, [George Herbert] Mead [in
his 1934 book, Mind, Self, and Society, Chicago, U Chicago Press] took
the gesture as the transitional link to language from action, and also as the
phenomenon establishing the continuities of human and infrahuman social life"
(Martindale 1960:355).
Word origin. From Latin gestus, from
(past participle) gerere, "to behave."
RESEARCH
REPORTS: 1. "Gesture includes much more than the
manipulation of the hands and other visible and movable parts of the organism.
Intonations of the voice may register attitudes and feelings quite as
significantly as the clenched fist, the wave of the hand, the shrugging of the
shoulders, or the lifting of the eyebrows" (Sapir 1931:105). 2.
The term ethology was used in the late 18th and early 19th centuries
for "the interpretation of character by the study of [human] gesture"; in the
20th century ethology came to mean the "comparative anatomy of [animal]
gestures," to reveal the "true characters of the animals" (Thorpe
1974:147).