David Efron b. 1904
A pioneer in the study of gestures, David Efron studied the
behaviour of groups of individuals, and of their descendants, in markedly
different environments. Efron analysed everyday social behaviour using film
recordings and a gesture coding system. A student of Franz Boas b. 1858, Efron
conducted his gesture study to examine differences in the gestural repertoire
of different neighbouring immigrant communities demonstrating the cultural
basis of gestural style and challenging Nazi claims that gestural style was
racially inherited. Efron grew up in an orthodox Jewish home and adopted
“tense, jerky, and confined” gestures, but, when he spoke Spanish, he gestured
with “the effervescence and fluidity of those of a good many Argentinians.” He coined the term 'emblem' for movements
that have a precise meaning known by all members of an ethnic group,
sub-culture, or culture.
Read Gesture and Environment (1941) New York: King
Crown Press