Like a marionette, Jimmy's body
obeyed an unnatural yet coherent set of physical laws all their own. Alternating
contractions and expansions, tautness dissolving into jangling looseness, his
body seemed to operate on hinged joints held up from a point beneath the nape of
his neck, his psychological springs like the shade too tightly wound. --Elia
Kazan, commenting on actor James Dean (Dalton
1984:53-4)
Standard. 1. An arbitrary
position of the body used to define movements as deviations from the
standard it defines. 2. An unusual posture, suggestive of humility or supplication, in which
the body stands upright with arms extended by its sides,
palms rotated forward, and feet resting flat upon the
floor.
Usage: Myriad joints in our hands, arms, feet, legs,
shoulders, pelvis, and spine make the possible number of body
movements and gestures incalculably immense. Thus, in recording an
observation, anatomical position is useful as a schematic device for
description. Movements away from its standard may carry information as
signs.
Anatomy. "Close inspection
reveals it [anatomical position] as an energy consuming position, seldom
actively adopted and involving some scapular rotation and adduction, full
lateral rotation of the humerus, direct mediolateral disposition of the elbow
joint's axis, full supination of the forearm and hand and with the pollex
[thumb] laterally placed!" (Bannister 1995:15).
Literature. ". . .
in the blurred circles of light . . . appeared a chin upturned, two closed
eyelids, a dark hand with silver rings, a meager limb draped in a torn covering,
a head bent back, a naked foot, a throat bared and stretched as if offering
itself to the knife." --Joseph Conrad (Lord Jim)
Media. Few of us ever use this unnatural posture. However, in the 1951 movie, An American in Paris, Gene Kelly waited in anatomical position below a fountain for his dance partner, Leslie Caron, to return to his side. With his hands in the palm-up position, Kelly's humble "open" posture invited her to approach. The anatomical posture is seen on TV in NFL football games, as well, in players who are accused of pass interference.
See also BASELINE DEMEANOR, BLANK
FACE.
Copyright 1998 - 2016 (David B.
Givens/Center for Nonverbal Studies)
Detail from drawing (copyright 1951 [Stephen
Peck/Oxford])