Page 21 - Studio International - July August 1972

presumably subscribes to much less than does `arbitrariness',5 has achieved a very impressive These and other theorists have tackled the vast
the average reader of, say, the Times Literary efficiency, but that it should have no priority question of the possibility of consonance
Supplement.3 or precedence over other ingredients in the between all layerings of experience—the
We do not mean to belittle the expressive expression of meaning. physical, the psychological, the social and the
capabilities of verbal language and literature. The most radical attack on the dominance of cosmic. Douglas has suggested that 'the
It is more a question, perhaps, of 'donner un sens speech and verbal expression in our culture has achievement of consonance between different
plus pur aux mots de la tribu' . The 'algebra' of probably been that of Artaud (see especially his realms of experience is a source of profound
verbal language is merely one means whereby the essays on Balinese theatre). A similar argument satisfaction'. The body is perhaps the foremost
body's physical organs and energies are has been more coolly put by Aaron V. Cicourel, of all metaphors for a society's perception of
articulated to convey meaning. It is admittedly a sociologist from San Diego who will lecture itself, recurring constantly in myths and
a very concentrated means—but when reflecting at the ICA: cosmogonies, art and literature. One lecture in
on its concentration it is sentimental to adduce `Everyday language is fascinating because the series will be given by Philip Rawson on the
merely Homer and Shakespeare. subdomains of its rather awesome flexible Indian cult of Tantra, where the body becomes
We should also recall how verbal language structure permit us to construct other artificial a metaphor perhaps more explicitly all-
enacts the stratification of social classes, the languages like logical and mathematical systems embracing than in any other social situation.
repression of deviant minorities, the rise of or computer programs that can be set up in The ambiguous attitude of Christianity to the
technological and professional elites, the correspondence with object, events and body—oscillating between glorification and
marketing of commodities and the glossing of operations.' mortification—is particularly close to home and
public cruelty. If verbal language no doubt But in all communication there is an should not be forgotten.
contributed substantially to the evolutionary `irremediable indexicality'. To the linguist, an Body behaviour and body imagery differ so
success of early man, it may now be a part of the indexical (or deictic) expression is, for instance, widely from culture to culture that it is
over-specialization of industrial man. The `Look there !'6 It draws the attention of the impossible to unscramble those biological or
majesty we now see in verbal language—our receiver to a particular situational context, not genetic constituents of any given behaviour
logocentricity' as Derrida has called it—may by naming it, but by locating it in relation to the which might fairly be called 'culture-
have caused us to neglect the expressive source (deixis = 'pointing'). Cicourel suggests independent' or 'specific to the human species'.
resources of the body as a totality, to crush that grammarians, having identified 'context- It is doubtful whether any formal attempt to
rtain potentials within ourselves in the same free objective statements' as the essence of unscramble the biological/genetic dimension
way that we have crushed certain other cultures language, must try constantly to 'repair' an from the social and psychological dimensions
that appeared to us to be deficient in civilizing indexicality which is in fact inherent in all would be a profitable exercise (since the notion
values. (The word 'barbarian' is thought to expressions, verbal and non-verbal. Any of an asocial human nature is an abstraction);
have been derived from a Greek imitation of expression, in his view, implies more but such ethnographic field-data as exists—
foreign gibberish.) contextual information than can be analysed about such cultures as Bali, Navaho, Southern
An alternative, Rousseauesque metaphor is out by the linguist; it builds on an Italy—is useful for testing all theories about
suggested by the agronomist's term inexhaustibly large substratum of tacit common the body.
`monoculture', which describes the process experience and meanings. Cicourel concludes We shall also investigate various 'aids' to the
whereby man replaces the diversity of a that body-medium such as clothing, adornment,
`natural' ecosystem by a single crop, till now `The interactional context, as reflexively body mutilation, hair-styling, bathing and care
agricultural production in some countries is experienced over an exchange, or as imagined of the body; and the use of the dead body as an
highly intensified with new high-protein or invented when the scene is displaced or art-form. These 'aids' need to be studied in
hybrid cereals that are more vulnerable to pests is known through a text, remains the heart of a relationship to images and ideas of the body.
and diseases. In both his agriculture and his general theory of meaning'.' But the most urgent and radical aspect of
communications man's exploitation by The ICA programme will explore the body's the subject is what John O'Neill, author of
enclosure has been overdone. The richness and role in interactional contexts as a mechanical, Sociology as a Skin-Trade (Heinemann), calls
diversity of the environment must be respected topographic and symbolic complex. A variety
and restored where possible; so must the of specialists will cover the following aspects of
richness and diversity of the body. the body: Racial protest at the Olympic Games, Mexico,
An important source-book in this field is (a) gesture, posture and the study of movement i6 October 1968
Non-Verbal Communication (ed. R. A. Hinde, (kinesics)
recently published by C.U.P.), the result of a (b) face-to-face behaviour and the means
Royal Society study group. This contains whereby everyone manages his 'personal front'
invaluable material and references, especially (a field pioneered by Erving Goffman)
on the linguistic and ethological aspects. But we (c) proximity studies (proxemics)
claim respectfully to offer some new (d) deaf-sign languages
perspectives. (e) paralinguistics —the 'greasy' parts of speech
Ted Polhemus will argue in his opening such as hesitation, vocalization etc
lecture on 6 September that the very title of the (f) animal signal systems (mainly primates but
C.U.P. book, Non-Verbal Communication, is a also dolphins and whales as representing
logocentric manoeuvre.4 Most ofthe contributors another branch on the evolutionary tree)
assume that (in the words of one of them, But this is just the start. The lecture-series
Jonathan Miller) 'verbal communication takes will attempt to subject some of this specialist
precedence in human discourse and that non- research to a sociological and anthropological
verbal behaviour achieves most of its critique.
communicative significance in the context of Recent American sociological trends will be
syntactically organized utterances.' Our own touched on,8 but we have been more guided by
working hypothesis is opposed to this. It is that European social anthropology: the Annie
verbal language, with its standardized spelling sociologique school (Durkheim, Mauss, Hertz),
and normative grammar, and its relative Levi-Strauss and particularly Mary Douglas.9