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Ray L. Birdwhistell
W
Social /4
*Defi£ o$ P&fc&oloQty ntfaiofiUopf
INTRODUCTION TO KINESICS:
(An annotation system for analysis of body motion and gesture)
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
FOREIGN SERVICE INSTITUTE
WASHINGTON, D.C.
1952
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES
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BP
3-CT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Prefaoe 2
Section I: A PRELIMINARY REVIEW 3
1. Preoonoeptions of Kinesios 5
2. Prekinesios 11
3. Microkinesics 14
4. Social Kinesios 23
5. Sample Conversations 25
II
Seotion i Kinegraphs 35
1. Total Head 38
. 2. Faoe 40
3. Trunk and Shoulders 45
4. Shoulder, Arm and Wrist 49
.5. Hand and finger action 54
6. Hip, upper leg, lower leg, ankle 62
7. Foot behavior 67
8. The Neok 72
Suggested Readings 73
i.
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PR3FACE
This paper represents an attempt to outline oertain aspeots
of the study of body motion and communication for the use of stu
dents and researohers in this field. It is intended as an intro
duction to, rather than as a definitive summary or review of, re
searoh in the field of body motion and meaning.
Section I consists of a brief discussion of the general field
of kinesios which, it is hoped, will be suggestive to others work
ing in this area whether their oentral focus be linguistic, psychi
atric, or general oultural. The field of kinasics is divided metho
dologioally in a manner approximating the prevalent usa^e in lin
guistics. While I take full responsibility for any of the theore
tical statements below, I must acknowledge my graat debt to Drs.
George L. Trager and Henry Lee Smith, Jr. The suggestions of these
two linguist-anthropologists during a six month seminar on the re
lationship between linguistic and kinesio phenomena guided the
development of muoh of the following disoussion./
Seotion II presents an annotation system for.the reoording of
body motion. Somewhat more complex than other annotational systems,
it has been designed speoifioally for the reoording and analysis of
or08s-oultural data. It is not complete. The total range of pos
sible variation in muscle aotivity is not reoorded in this limited
list of symbols. It is, however, so designed that it will permit
considerable expansion aooording to its basio logic. Further re
searoh should oertainly iead to its revision.
Introduotion to Kinesics iB a preliminary researoh manual.
It has been developed and is presented with the hope that it will
stimulate researoh in this almost-negleoted area of human inter
action. The paper is the result of the crystallization and inte
gration of the author's researohes taking plaoe during his stay
at the Foreign Servioe Institute in the Spring of 1952 as Visiting
Leoturer in Psychology. Acknowledgment is gratefully made for
the opportunity thus offered to present these materials.
Ray L. Birdwhistell
Washington, D. C.
May 15, 1952.
2.
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8.
Ii
Seotion A PRELIMINARY REVIEW
The following represents an attempt to review oertain
methodologioal aspeots of the study of body motion as re
lated to the non-verbal aspeots of inter-personal communi
oation. The term kinesios has been chosen to oover the multi
level approaoh (physioal, physiologioal, psyohological, and
cultural) to suoh phenomena. To minimize the conoeptual dif
ferenoes between the various social soienoes the term social
kinesiologist has been seleoted as the term for one attempting
to analyze systematically the data oovered by kinesio investi
gation.
, The discussion will fall unequally into four major cate
gories. To olarify the writer's position, oertain primary con
ceptions whioh at present govern the field of kinesios will
introduoe this seotion* Following this,.the field of kinesios
will be outlined.
The study of kinesios may be divided into three major
oategories :
"
1
1. Pre-kine8ios, whioh deals with general physiologioal
bases for the systematic study of body-motion.
2. Mioro-kinealoB, whioh deals with the isolation of
kines (least partioles of abstraotable body motion - see Seo
II,
tion p. ) whioh aims at the abstraction of kines into
manageable morphologioal classes.
3. Sooial kinesios, whioh relates to the funotioning of
motion as related to sooial performanoe. Sooial performanoe
here relates to the communication aspeots of sooial interaction
whether suoh behavior involves integrational or new informa
tional performanoe.
The use of "integrational" as opposed to "new
informational" may prove artificial but, for
the time being, these oategories may be distin
guished. "Integrational" oommunioation involves
suoh* interaction as invokes oommon past experienoe
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4.
and is related to the initiation, maintenanoe,
or severanoe of interaction. "New information-
alnt while symbolically consistent with and
made up of past experienoe, involves the inolu
sion of information not held in oommon by the
oommunioants.
The aims of this paper are suoh that the discussion below
is general and makes no speoifio referenoe to documentary materi
al on body motion. The reader will find a partial bibliography
at the end of the paper. As stated in the prefaoe, this is in
tended as a suggestive report rather than a definitive ooverage
of the metaphysioal or physiologioal bases for motion researoh.
v
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1. Preoonoeptlons of Kingsios.
Primary to any systematic examination of suoh phenomena
as that represented by the movements of the human body in its
higher level aotivities as a member unit in "the oultural con
text is the willingness of the part of the investigator to re-
linquish assumptions whioh relate to "accidental" or "meaning
less" activity. Once taken, this step eradicates the vitiating
inolination to dump non-traoeable aotivities into either the
"independent particle" or the "idiosynoratio" wastebasket.
Thus, any movement from a heuri8tio zero point in spaoe-time
represents a bit of behavior subject to analysis.
It is reoognized that both temperamental and
oultural differenoes will effeot the "zero
point." Thus, as translated for middle olass
Amerioans the zero point, repose, is assumed
as the "semi-relaxed" state of the body. All
zero points must be defined with oultural -indi
cating prefixes. On the living body, any per-
J
oeptible position is a motion from zero.
Sooial personality is a tempero-spaoial system. All be
haviors evinoed by any suoh system are components of the system
exoept as related to differential levels of abstractions. "A"
behavior and "the" system or field of foroe are inseparable.
Thus, researoh may reveal any given partiole of motion to be
more or less important as measured against a given problem,
but no partiole oan oooupy a position independent from the
field of foroe.
if
Even no participant of an interaotion field oan re-
oall, or repeat in a dramatized oontext, a given series or se
quenoe of motions, the appearanoe of a motion is of signifi
oance to the general study of the particular kinesio system
if
even the given problem oan be rationalized without refer
it,
ence to
"Dramatized context" as used hereafter will
refer to a repetition of a kinesio aot or
aotion pattern in the informant-investiga
tion situation. Context as used will refer
to any observed kinesio pattern in whioh the
observer does not direct the aotion.
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6.
Thus, any given motion may have relative insignif icanoe
on ona level of generalization or problem but may be of the
greatest significanoe on another.
E.g., the medial brow pinch or mid-faoe frown
may be related to vooalization as (a) an alxo-
kine (or equivalent meaning particle) of an in
tonation marking nodj (b) as an indioation soci
ally either of annoyanoe or attention; (o) may
be idiokinesioally defined as a repose station.
While every attempt should be made to isolate and make re
cordable the possible variations of motion, only continuing system-
atization of motion patterns will provide silhouettes against
whioh the importanoe of variation oan be measured.
Gestalt and field theory will probably dominate
.kinesic analysis. However, kines must be re
corded for idiokinesic and diakinesic analysis.
Kinesio analysis must depend on sufficient evi
denoe conoerning general patterning.
A seoond major point underlying the field of kinesios relates
to the proposition that all meaningful motion patterns are to be
regarded as socially learned until empirioal investigation re-
veals otherwise.
t
It has been generally agreed that "gestures'', i.e., conven
tionalized motor symbols, are learned. (I say "generally agreed",
for thetfe are scholars who would assign many of these to some
kind of universal symbolism whioh emerge from "basio needs.")
That there is an infinite number of other motor patterns whioh
are sooially learned and have social meaning is not so generally
aooepted. A few of these are regarded as "expressive gestures"
and as relatable only to the experienoe of the particular indi
viduals! most are simply ignored or assumed to be "natural."
It is the experience of the researoh upon whioh this paper is
based that suoh a priori judgments are often fallacious.
As an example, we may take a pattern like the eye-lids.
Even in the face of such culturally revealing statements as
"She batted her eyes at him," variations in lid behavior are
often dismissed as "accidental" or desoribed in a reduotionist
manner whioh relates to the "primary" funotioning of the eye
as an aid to ball lubrioation or as shields against intense
light frequenoies or intrusive particles.
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It is evident that the range of learning possible in the
lid oomplex is considerable. Examination of cases provided by
South Asian religious oults makes this clear. A fakir can,
after intensive training, inhibit the lid in the full glare of
the sun or while the ball is being peltered by dust-laden air.
Preliminary investigation of the relationship between body
motion and verbal behavior indicates that lid activity may be
closely correlated with suoh finite patterning of speeoh be
havior as stress, voioe qualifiers, and intonation patterns.
There is considerable evidence that as suoh linguistio behavior
varies from oulture to culture so does the accompanying sup
portive (?) or definitive lid behavior.
I am not suggesting a neoessary correlation of
particular lid behaviors with particular stress,
voioe qualifiers, or intonation systems in any
extra-cultural fashion. The observation of bi
lingual speakers indicate that these are semi-in
dependent systems whioh must be examined in context.
The signifioant aspeot of this is that as a bilin
gual speaker changes languages he also ohanges
kinesio systems. As will be stressed later, there
seems to be no more universality- to the meaning of
kinesio patterns than there is to any sound pattern.
Some authors make a differentiation between "learning" and
"maturation." To them "learning" covers those shifts in behavior
whioh are derived from experienoe. The assumption in this review
that motion patterns are sooially learned does not indioats a
lack of sympathy with suoh a distinotion. Nor does this oontra-
diot the findings of suoh studies as those being oarried on by
Gesell and his students. Recent studies of this sohool have indi
oated that the rate of development of given ohildren may be ef
feoted by their particular sooial milieus. This, taken together
with the insights given by Mead in her study of Balinese ohildren,
would suggest that considerable oaution must be exerted in making
statements whioh assign a disoretely biologioal base to given
motions.
It is hoped that kinesios will not become lost in a nature-
If
nurture argument. the pre-kinesio analysis i8 rigorously done
there need be no such dichotomy set up. However, sinoe we are
primarily oonoerned with the oommunioation aspects of body motion,
and sinoe oommunioation patterns seem to be learned phenomena, all '
particles will be treated as learned until universals are shown
from oross-oultural research. This point is stressed beoause the
ethnooentrio definition of "natural" may provide burial grounds
for important and revealing research.
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As related to the analysis of social kinesios or "ex
pressive" behavior, I am tentatively adopting a "whole body"
oonoeption. Portions of suoh aotivity may be beyond thresh
olds of sensory perception. Their presenoe may only have
been determined by the use of sensory multipliers suoh as
galvanometers, eleotro-enoephalographs, sphygmomanometers,
etc. However, outside of suoh data, whioh lie beyond the
range of the unassisted senses, there exists a significant
amount of "private" behavior whioh oan be isolated by the
trained kinesios observer without reoourse to these parapha-
nalia.
1 In faot, kinesiologists may disoever, as have linguists,
that not only do suoh oomplioated reoording devioes impose
oertain limitations upon the researoh situation, but they
is,
often provide non-signifioant data (that non-signifioant
to the problems being analyzed by the student of human com
munioation). The aooustioian reoords data imperoeptible to
little
even the most trained observer. Suoh events are of
interest to the student of vooal oommunioation exoept inso
far as they aid in his analysis of the raw data. Similarly,
suoh machines as the sphygmomanometer may give support to the
conclusions of the sooial kinesiologist but are not substi
tutes for the trained human observer. (This extends to the
If
use of moving pictures). phenomena cannot be observed
|
through the unassisted senses (of the "normal" observer),
suoh phenomena are of little signifioanoe to participants
in interaction, exoept as related to introspeotive pick-up
whioh may influenoe the aotor's behavioral series .J
An example of the above might be the situa
tion in whioh the young girl ohanges stanoe
and exhibits "restless" behavior when a breeze
ruffles a look of her hair. Obviously, she
is "pioking up" a follicular response whioh
may be quite imperceptible to the "outside"
observer. One might suggest that the stimu
lus is unimportant and that the faot that the
restless behavior appears is the important
aspeot of this situation. Until suoh be
havior is examined in a series of contrasting
contexts no final analytic description oan be
made.
Related to the above disoussion, a few remarks must be di
rected to the problem of "reoall", "informants1 descriptions",
and *bonsbious-unoonsoious" diohotemies. (I am deeply grate
ful to Smith and Trager for sensitizing me to this in relation
