Allan Pease - Body Language | Page 8

the gestures of other people,
as well as acquiring a conscious awaren ess of your own gestures. A good reading
ground is anywhere that people meet and inte ract. An airport is a particularly good
place for observing the entire spectrum of human gestures, aspeople openly express
eagerness, anger, sorrow, happiness, impa tience and many other emotions through
gestures. Social functions, business meetings and parties are also excellent. Having
studied the art of body language, you can go to a party, sit alon e in a corner all evening
like a wallflower and have an exciting time just watching other peop le’s body language
rituals! Television also offers an excelle nt way of learning nonverbal communication.
Turn down the sound and try to understand what is happening by first watching the
picture. By turning the s ound up every five minutes, you will be able to check how
accurate your non-verbal readings are and before long it will be possible to watch an
entire program without any sound and understand what is happening, just as deaf
people do.

Tw o
Territories and Zones
Thousands of books and articles have been written about the staking out and
guarding of territories by animals, birds, fi sh and primates, but only in recent years has
it been discovered that man also has territories. When this is learned and the
implications understood, not only can enormous insights into one’s own behaviour and
that of others be gained but the face-to-face reactions of others can be predicted.
American anthropologist Edward T. Hall was one of the pioneers in the study of man’s
spatial needs and in the early 1960s he coined the word ‘proxemics’ (from ‘proximity’
or nearness). His research into this fi eld has led to new understanding about our
relationships with our fellow humans.
Every country is a territory staked out by clearly defined boundaries and sometimes
protected by armed guards. Within each coun try are usually smaller territories in the
form of states and counties. Within these are even smaller territories called cities,
within which are suburbs, containing many streets that, in themselves, represent a
closed territory to those who live there. The inhabitants of each territory share an
intangible allegiance to it and have been know n to turn to savagery and killing in order
to protect it.
A territory is also an area or space that a person claims as his own, as if it were an
extension of his body. Each person has his own personal territory which includes the
area that exists around his possessions, su ch as his home which is bounded by fences,
the inside of his motor vehicle, his own bedroom or personal chair and, as Dr Hall
discovered, a defined air space around his body.
This chapter will deal mainly with the im plications of this air space and how people
react when it is invaded.
PERSONAL SPACE
Most animals have a certain air space ar ound their bodies that they claim as their
personal space. How far the space extends is mainly dependent on how crowded were
the conditions in which the an imal was raised. A lion raised in the remote regions of
Africa may have a territorial air space with a radius of fifty kilometres or more,
depending on the density of the lion population in that area, and it marks its territorial
boundaries by urinating or defecating around th em. On the other hand, a lion raised in
captivity with other lions may have a persona l space of only several metres, the direct
result of crowded conditions.
Like the other animals, man has his ow n personal portable ‘air bubble’ that he
carries around with him and its size is depe ndent on the density of the population in the
place where he grew up. This personal zone distance is therefore culturally determined.
Where some cultures, such as the Japanese, are accustomed to crowding, others prefer
the ‘wide open spaces’ and like to keep th eir distance. However, we are mainly
concerned with the territorial behaviour of people raised in Western cultures.
Status can also have an effect on the distance at which a person stands in relation to
others and this will be discussed in a later chapter.

Zone Distances
The radius of the air bubble around suburban middle class white people living in
Australia, New Zealand, England, North Amer ica and Canada is generally the same. It
can be broken down into four distinct zone distances.
1. Intimate Zone (between 15 and 45 centimetres or 6 to 18 inches)
Of all the zone distances, this is by far the most important as it is this zone