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Silent Language

By: Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Publication details: New York: Anchor Books, 1981Description: 209ISBN:
  • 9780385055499
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 303.482 HAL
Summary: A leading American anthropologist analyzes the many vitally important ways in which people "talk" to one another without the use of words. "The Silent Language shows how cultural factors influence the individual behind his back, without his knowledge." —Erich Fromm The pecking order in a chicken yard, the fierce competition in a school playground, every unwitting gesture and action—this is the vocabulary of the "silent language." According to Dr. Hall, the concepts of space and time are tools with which all human beings may transmit messages. Space, for example, is the outgrowth of an animal's instinctive defense of his lair and is reflected in human society by the office worker's jealous defense of his desk, or the guarded, walled patio of a Latin-American home. Similarly, the concept of time, varying from Western precision to Easter vagueness, is revealed by the businessman who pointedly keeps a client waiting, or the South Pacific islander who murders his neighbor for an injustice suffered twenty years ago.
List(s) this item appears in: New Arrivals for the Month of March 2023 - Sociology
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Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Book Book Alliance School of Liberal Arts 303.482 HAL (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available LA01836
Total holds: 0

A leading American anthropologist analyzes the many vitally important ways in which people "talk" to one another without the use of words.

"The Silent Language shows how cultural factors influence the individual behind his back, without his knowledge." —Erich Fromm

The pecking order in a chicken yard, the fierce competition in a school playground, every unwitting gesture and action—this is the vocabulary of the "silent language." According to Dr. Hall, the concepts of space and time are tools with which all human beings may transmit messages. Space, for example, is the outgrowth of an animal's instinctive defense of his lair and is reflected in human society by the office worker's jealous defense of his desk, or the guarded, walled patio of a Latin-American home. Similarly, the concept of time, varying from Western precision to Easter vagueness, is revealed by the businessman who pointedly keeps a client waiting, or the South Pacific islander who murders his neighbor for an injustice suffered twenty years ago.

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