Ray Birthwhistell b. 1918
Ray L Birthwhistell coined the terms kinesics (meaning ‘the
study of body‐motion as related to the non‐verbal aspects of interpersonal
communication’) and kine (the smallest observable unit of body movement). He
saw that a small number of movement types combined to form larger structural
units. Birthwhistell established kinesics as a field of enquiry and research to
which he contributed for 20 years analysing people talking and examined how
their gestures were used to emphasise and illustrate. His in-depth observation
led to him proposing a set of categories that characterised movements witnessed
(kinesics) making identifiable social actions. He believed body‐motion
communication to be systemic, socially learned and communicative behaviours
unless proven otherwise, and argued that human communication needs and uses all
the senses. Birthwhistell estimated that no more than about a third of the
social meaning of a conversation (or interaction) is carried by the words. He
proposed that gestures and movements convey information that is coded and
patterned differently in various cultures; and that people’s preferred or
typical postures reflected their past.
Read Kinesics and Context: Essays on Body motion
communication. (1970) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
