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Subtle, nonverbal communicative behavior has long been appreciated by writers, artists, confidence men, and politicians, yet only recently has it become the subject of rigorous study. In the United States there is a sudden, almost explosive interest in the study of facial expression, emotive language, gestures, body languages and the use of settings for communicative purposes. The present book is an exciting and scholarly contribution to this area of investigation. The contributors are British scholars of a study group of the Royal Society under the chairmanship of Professor Thorpe, who, in a true interdisciplinary effort, has brought together findings of linguists, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and artists. The contributions deal with theoretical issues and the signaling systems of living organisms. These include the communication systems of many species: the lower vertebrates, the invertebrates, birds, mammals, and man. Nonverbal communication in man includes the learning of communication skills, social interaction systems, intercultural differences subtle expressions in art, and the behavior of the mentally ill.
This is perhaps the most comprehensive effort ever made to bring together the research efforts of various disciplines on this fashionable topic. It is necessary reading for the scholar interested in prosodic, paralinguistic, nonverbal behavior. Most chapters present significant data to the reader, and Hinde has written well-integrated, well-informed comments on each chapter.
However, even though Professor Hinde's comments are useful, some chapters make very difficult reading unless one has the appropriate background. There is really no comprehensive theory of nonverbal human or animal behavior; we deal with numerous isolated observations which have not yet been integrated, though some efforts to integrate them are being made right here. This makes reading the book interesting, but also somewhat confusing: lacking a theoretical framework, eac