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The Hidden Dimension

Edward T. Hall - The Hidden Dimension. Anchor Books, 1969. 217 lk

See teos peaks olema iga "kehakeeleeksperdi" aluskirjandus. See on jälgimuslik märkus - enamus, kui mitte kõik, kehakeelest kõnelevad raamatud on ühel või teisel moel saanud mõjutust Hallist. Siin pole midagi imestada - tema kirjutatu (vähemalt selles teoses, The Silent Language kohta ei oska veel midagi öelda) on põhjalik, täpne (teaduslik?) ja huvitav. Isegi bibliograafia on erakordne - see on jaotatud valdkondade järgi kolmeks: art and architecture, sociology ja psychology. Kahju vaid sellest, et seda raamatut peetakse hoidlas ja tiheda kasutuse tõttu on ta juba üpris ära räsitud. Teine koopia on paranduses juba pikemat aega, aga ka see vääriks parandust või vähemasti kiletamist.
Sissejuhatuses viitab ta Franz Boasile, Sapirile ja ka Whorfile: "Language is, in fact, a major element in the formation of thought." Ta teeb märkuse kultuurinähtuse kohta, mis on tänapäeval vist juba üldtuntud: "Arabs make more use of olfaction oand touch than Americans." Juba neljandal või viiendal leheküljel on tsitaate, mida tahan kasutada:
In light of what is known of ethology, it may be profitable in the long run if man is viewed as an organism that has elaborated and specialized his extensions to such a degree that they have taken over, and are rapidly replacing, nature.In other words, man has created a new dimension, the cultural dimension, of which proxemics is only a part. The relationship between man and the cultural dimension is one in which both man and his environment participate in molding each other. Man is now in the position of actually creating the total world in which he lives, what the ethologists refer to as his biotope. In creating this world he is actually determining what kind of organism he will be. This is a frigtening thought in view of how very little is known about man. It also means that, in a very deep sense, our cities are creating different types of people in their slums, mental hospitals, prisons, and suburbs. These subtle interactions make the problem of urban renewal and the integration of minorities into the dominant culture more difficult that is often anticipated. Similarly, our lack of full understanding of the relation of peoples and their biotope is compounding the process of technical development of the so-called underdeveloped nations of the world.
WHat happens when people of different cultures meet and become involved? In The Silent Language I suggested that communication occurs simultaneously on different levels of consciousness, ranging from full awareness to out-of-awareness. Recently it has becopme necessary to expand this view.When people communicate they do much more than just toss the convesation ball back and forth. My own studies as well as those of others reveal a series of delicately controlled, culturally conditioned servomechanisms that keeps life on and even keel, much like automatic piloton the airplane. All of us are sensitive to subtle changes in the demeanor of the other person as he responds to what we are saying or doing. In most situations people will at first uncounsciously and later counsciously avoid escalation of what I have termed the adumbrative or foreshadowing part of a communication from the barely perceptible signs of annoyance to open hostility. In the animal world, if the adumbrative process is shortcirtuited or bypassed, vicious fighting is apt to occur. In humans in the international-intercultural sphere of life many difficulties can be traced to failure to read adumbrations correctly. In such instances, by the time people discover what is going on, they are so deeply involved that they can't back out.
Kohe ka mõistete kallale: Biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. A servomechanism, or servo is an automatic device that uses error-sensing feedback to correct the performance of a mechanism. The term correctly applies only to systems where the feedback or error-correction signals help control mechanical position or other parameters. Adumbration is prefiguration: the act of providing vague advance indications; representing beforehand.
As man developed culture he domesticated himself and in the process created a whole new series of worlds, each different from the other. Each world hasits own set of sensory inputs, so that what crowds people of one culture does not necessarily crowd another. Similarly, an act that releases aggression and would therefore be stressful to one people may be neutral to the next.
Ka eelnev common sense arutluskäik vajas tsiteerimist, kuna see seostub minu arvates Uexkülli omailmaga. Viimast tahtsin lugedes seostada biotoobiga (tõlkes ka "elupaik) ning see tsitaat selgitab erinevust üpris ilmekalt.
Edasi analüüsis Hall kauguste või vahemaade liigitusi. Liikidevahelises suhtluses on flight ja critical kaugused - esimene põhjustab põgenemist ja teine on see kaugus, mis põhjustab vastupidist reaktsiooni. Näiteks toodi seda, kuidas lõvisid tsirkuses liikuma pannakse - kuna nende põgenemis- ja kriitilised kaugused on sentimeetri täpsusega teada, siis piisab lõvi "liigutamiseks" tema ruumi tungimisest ja sealt õigel momendil (nt kui lõvi on parasjagu puki peal) lahkumisest. Liigisiseses suhtluses on olulisemaks social ja personal vahemaad. Nendest tean juba läbi rohkete tõlgenduste rohkem. Näiteks toodi seda, kuidas ahvid ja ka inimesed hoiavad oma lapsi enda ligidal (like a band holding together a social group).

The word "sink" is used figuratively to mean a receptacle of foul or waste things. Calhoun invented the term "behavioral sink" to designate the gross distortions of behavior which appeared among the majority of the rats in the Rockville barn. Such a phenomenon, he believes, is "the outcome of any behavioral process that collects animals together in unusually great numbers. The unhealthy connotations of the term are not accidental: a behavioral sink does act to aggravate all forms of pathology that can be found within a group".

When sink developed in Pens II and III, everything changed. Several different categories of males could be identified:
  1. The agressively dominant, of whom there might be as many as three, exhibited normal behavior.
  2. The passive males avoided both fighting and sex.
  3. THe hyperactive subordinate males spent their time chasing females. Three or four might be tailing one harassed female at the same time.During the pursuit phase, they would fail toobserve the amenities; instead of stopping at the "burrow" entrance they would follow the female inside so that she had no respite. During mounting, these male rats frequently maintained their grasp of females for several minutes instead of the usual two or three seconds.
  4. Pansexual males tried mounting anything; receptive and non-receptive females, males and females alike, young and old. Any sex partner would do.
  5. Some males withdrew from social and sexual intercourse and went abroad chiefly at the time when other rats slept.

In order to understand man, one must know something of the nature of his receptor systems and how the information received from these receptors is modified by culture. Man's sense apparatus falls into two catefories, which can be roughly classified as:
  1. The distance receptors - those concerned with examination of distant objects - the eyes, the ears, and the nose.
  2. The immediate receptors - those used to examine the world close up - the world of touch, the sensations we receive from the skin, membranes, and muscles.

A general notion, however, of the relative complexities of the two systems can be obtained by comparing the size of the nerves connecting the eyes and the ears to the centers of the brain. Since the optic nerve contains roughly eighteen times as many neurons as the cochlear nerve, we assume it transmits at least that much more information. Actually, in normally alert subjects, it is probably that the eyes may be as much as a thousand times as effective as the ears in sweeping up information.

A major exeption is the hearing of a blind person who learns to selectively attend the higher audio frequencies which enable him to locate objects in a room.

Meeldivuse tõttu kirjutan siia ümber ka sellise kena katkendi:
In the northern European tradition most Americans have cut themselves off from a powerful communication channel: olfaction. Our cities lack both olfactory and visual variety. Anyone who has walked along the streets of almost any European village or town knows what is nearby. During World War II in France I observed that the aroma of French bread freshly removed from the oven at 4:00 A.M. could bring a speeding jeep to a screaming halt. The reader can ask himself what smells we have in the U.S. that can achieve such results. In the typical French town, one may savor the smell of coffee, spices, vegetables, freshly plucked fowl, clean laundry, and the characteristic odor of outdoor dafes. Olfactions of this type can provide a sense of life; the shifts and the transitions not only help to locate one in space but add zest to daily living.

Veel üks sõna, millele leiaksin rohkesti kasutust, kui see vaid eesti keeles ka oleks: Proprioceptors ehk närvilõpmed lihastes, kõõlustes ja teistes organites mis vastavad stiimulitele keha positsiooni ja liikumise kohta. Proprioceptorite süsteem ütleb sulle, kus sa parasjagu asud ja kuidas sa liigud.


Kuidas eskimod orienteeruvad maamärkideta Arktikas, kirjeldab Edmund Carpenter:
When I travel by car, I can, with relative ease, pass through a complex and chaotic city - Detroit, for example - by following a handful of highway markers. I begin with the assumption that the streets are laid out in a grid and the knowledge that certain signs mark my route. Apparently, the Aivilik have similar, though natural, reference points. By and large, these are not actual objects or points, but relationships; relationships between, say, contour, type of snow, wind, salt air, ice crack.

"Frozen style is for people who are to remain strangers."

Mõisted:
sociopetal - arranged so that each can see and interact with the others
sociofugal - arranged so that each can maintain some privacy from the others

Kokkuvõttes iganenud, aga hea lugemine. Tekitas huvi Halli teiste raamatute vastu. Uuesti ei loeks enne, kui olen sotsiosemiootikaga korralikult tutvust teinud.

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