His hands were resting on the edge of my desk. The giant
fingers of the right hand found the fingers of the left, interlocked, and
squeezed; a knuckle popped. I was glad I wasn't in the middle. --George C. Chesbro (Shadow of a Broken
Man, 1977:10)
Sign.
1. A movement, gesture, or posture involving the end(s) of the
finger(s). 2. Specifically, a. the position of
the fingertips in space, or b. the points of physical contact
made by the tactile pads with material objects, clothing, or body parts
(esp. with the lips and hands; see HOMUNCULUS).
Usage: Isolating on the hand reveals an incredibly high level of
activity in our fingertips: they rarely keep still. Due to dense
concentrations of nerve endings, fingertips have evolved as tactile
antennae with which to explore the material world. When we feel anxious or
upset, our hypersensitive pads unthinkingly reach out to stimulate, caress, and
console tender areas of the body (see SELF-TOUCH). Because our fingers are nerve-linked to speech
areas of the brain, their movements often reflect unvoiced thoughts and
concealed opinions as well (see DECISION
GRIP, MIME CUE, and STEEPLE).
Salesmanship. "You shake hands;
you hand the prospect your card; you hand him brochures, pictures, samples,
things that have to be unfolded, unrolled, opened" (Delmar 1984:44).
OBSERVATION: Though they provide reliable clues about what we think, how we feel, and where our attention lies, we take fingertip movements largely for granted. At a critical meeting, interview, or interrogation, however, they deserve special notice. "Depend upon it," Sherlock Holmes told Watson, "there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace" (A Case of Identity).
Neuro-notes. Mirror neurons: "In the first weeks after birth [and '. . . probably subserved by the mirror [neuron] system . . .' (p. 21)] infants have been documented by experimental studies to imitate a variety of gestures, such as . . . finger movements . . ." [p. 24; source: Braten, Stein, and Colwyn Trevarthen (2007). Chapter 1: "Prologue," in Braten, Stein (Ed.), On Being Moved: From Mirror Neurons to Empathy (2007; Amsterdam: John Benjamins), pp. 21-34].
See also OBJECT FANCY, TOUCH
CUE.
Copyright 1998 - 2016 (David B.
Givens/Center for Nonverbal Studies)