Kinesics and Context

Birdwhistell, Ray L. 1970. Kinesic and Context: Essays on Body-Motion Communication. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press

Esimese lugemisega võrreldes leidsin seekord umbkaudu samavõrd palju tsiteerimisväärset materjali, mis annab lootust, et ka kolmas kord kuluks ära. Momenti mil Birdwhistell ütleb midagi laadis "käitumine ehk märk" ei leidnudki sel korral. Ja kineemitähestikust saan nüüd vististi halvemini aru kui varem.

...behavior never stands alone - it is always modified by other identification signals and by the structure of the context in which the behavior occurs. (Birdwhistell 1970: 45)

Teisest kultuurist pärit laste käitumist jälgides on liigutusi "kergem näha":

If we were watching children from another culture, whose behavior is very bizarre in our terms, it would be very much easier to see. (Birdwhistell 1970: 48)

Suhtlemise uurimisel on mitteverbaalset aspekti varem kas välditud või antud marginaalne positsioon:

A majority of all discussions of communication have thus been phrased in terms of the passage of words from wirter to reader, from speaker to auditor. The accompanying behavior, even when recognized as coterminous with the words, has been by and large relegated to a position of being, at best, a modifier of the messages carried by the words. More commonly, the accompanying behavior is seen to interfere with the transmission of meaning, and "good" communication depends upon the elimination or reduction of the extraneous circumlexical behavior. (Birdwhistell 1970: 67)

Suhtlemine, õppimine ja ühiskonnas elamine:

To be viable members of their social groupings, fish, birds, mammals, and man must engage in significant symbolization - must learn to recognize, receive, and send ordered messages. In other words, the individual must learn to behave in appropriate ways which permit the other members of the group th recognize and anticipate his behavior. Society is that way in which behavior is calibrated so that existence is not a process of continuous and wasteful trial and error. (Birdwhistell 1970: 74)

We think og communication as centrally verbal - centrally cognitive and centrally willful and only laterally and by imperfection influenced by the other modalities of interaction. It is no suprise that our research designs will mirror this structure of conventional reality. (Birdwhistell 1970: 87)

It has been our experience that even preliminary research, using structural linguistic and kinesic methods, lends confidence to a description of communication as being a continuous process made up of isolable discontinuous units. THese units are always multifunctional; they have distinguishable contrast meaning on one level and a cross-referencing function (meaning) on others. Under inspection, each level of behavioral activity is discontinous - that is, is made up of a series of discrete, arbitrary elements - and none of these elements has explicit or implicit social meaning in and of itself. (Birdwhistell 1970: 88)

Personaalne ja jagatud tähendus on siin idiosünkraatne ja institutsionaalne:

Unless the student of structural analysis of communication is so omnivorous in his conception of communication that he defines it to include all of culture, he must have distinct, or at least heuristically distinguishable, contexts for measuring the behavior which he is attempting to order. If he is going to study the communicated shifts of behavior in groups, he must know the contexts of these occurrences. Only in this way can he isolate the strictly communicational behavior from the idiosyncratic, on the one hand, and from the institutionally internalized, on the other. (Birdwhistell 1970: 95)

I stated above that I object to any attempt to subsume all social behavior under a linguistic, kinesic rubric. I do not think, as presently conceived, that all interactive behavior should be relegated to a communicational or "semiotic" frame. (Birdwhistell 1970: 98)

Extensive and technically difficult research reveals that there are four significant degrees of lid closure: "overopen," "slit," "closed," and "squeezed." There are besides these a series of circumorbital kinic complexes that have resisted analysis. For instance, contraction of the distal aspects of the circumorbital area gives us the familiar "laugh lines." We have not yet been able to determine whether this distal crinkling has kinemic status. It is clear that its absence significantly varies the "meaning" of a smile or laugh, but until we can demonstrate that it is not merely an allokine of lid closure, we must withhold its assignment. (Birdwhistell 1970: 100)

Teda nimetatakse alusetult relativistiks, sest tegelikult oli tal lihtsalt rõhuvamaid küsimusi millele vastata kui liigutuste päritolu:

There is no more evidence for this than there isthat syntactic activity is not ultimately a derivation from body movement. From my point of view, it is premature at this stage of analysis to conjecture about origins. Our central concern is how such behaviors operate, not where they came from. (Birdwhistell 1970: 125)

Siin jõuab Birdwhistell kummastavalt lotmaniaanlikule järeldusele, et märgisüsteemide läbipõimimine on suhtlemiseks vajalik:

My own research has led me to the point that I am no longer willing to call either linguistic or kinesicsystems communication systems. All of the emerging data seem to me to support the contiention that linguistics and kinesics are infracommunicational systems. Only in their interrelationship with each other and with comparable systems from other sensory modalities are the emergent communication systems achieved. (Birdwhitell 1970: 127)

Kineesika ja lingvistika analoogiat saab järeldada siit:

A phone or a kine, a word or a kinemorph, a sentence or a complex kinemorphic construction can be produced at will by a sufficiently skilled analyst or actor. (Birdwhistell 1970: 155)

Kui palju materjali on vaja?

Without longer stretches of film, say an hour, and without perspective on the social and cultural matrix in which the activity occurs, such a record provides little more than an extended set of candid closeups or, at best, a piece of ethnographic curiosae. But in a familiar context even very brief pieces of behavior provide us with extensive generalizations which can be systematically tested. (Birdwhistell 1970: 157)

Veel üks hoiatus "märgikandja" ahvatluse suhtes:

The recognition that communicational behavior can be congruent in one setting and incongruent in another should serve as a warning against any theory of meaning which suggests that the particles carry meaning in and of themselves. (Birdwhistell 1970: 179)

Kineesilise uurimise põhieeldused:

1. Like other events in nature, no body movement or expression is without meaning in the context in which it appears.
2. Like other aspects of human behavior, body posture, movement, and facial expression are patterned and, thus, subject to systematic analysis.
3. While the possible limitations imposed by particular biological substrata are recognized, until otherwise demonstrated, the systematic body motion of the members of a community is considered a function of the social system to which the group belongs.
4. Visible body activity, like audible acoustic activity, systematically influences the behavior of other members of any particular group.
5. Until otherwise demonstrated such behavior will be considered to have an investigable communicational function.
6. The meanings derived therefrom are functions both of the behavior and of the operations by which it is investigated.
7. The particular biological system and the special life experience of any individual will contribute idiosyncratic elements to his kinesic system, but the individual or symptomatic quality of these elements can only be assessed following the analysis of the larger system of which his is a part.

(Birdwhistell 1970: 183-184)

Idiokineesiline süsteem:

The idiokinesic system of any actor is derived from a multiple of experiences with a wide variety of exposures to often quite differing systems. (Birdwhistell 1970: 185)

viis ahvatlust:

1. "Märgiandja" ahvatlus - tuleneb lingvistilisest naiivsusest mis eeldab, et igale žestile vastab "päris" tähendust just nagu sõnadel peaks olema.
2. "Loomulikuma" ahvatlus - eeldused, et keha liikumine on primitiivsem ja seega lähemal bioloogilisele loomusele kui verbaalne käitumine ning on seetõttu mustritu; ja et imikute käitumine on loomulikum kui täiskasvanute käitumine.
3. "Muutja" ahvatlus - eeldus, et sõnad kannavad tähendust ja mittesõnaline käitumine ainult muudab seda. Usk, et suhtlemine on põhiliselt verbaalne.
4. "Keskse liikumise" ahvatlus - uurija eeldus, et üks kehaosa "kannab tähendust" ja teine "muudab" seda.
5. "Analüütilise informaatori" ahvatlus - informaatori selgitused pakuvad edasisi andmeid, mitte tegelikke selgitusi.

(Birdwhistell 1970: 1986-191)
Käituma õppides õpime ka mitte teadvustama õpitut:

Kinesics is concerned with the abstraction of those portions of body motion activity which contribute to the process of human interaction. Much, if not the overwhelming proportion, of such behavior is learned by a member of any society without being aware of the learning process. It is my belief that not only is much of such behavior not within the range of easy recall but that the learning pattern may carry within it positive prohibitions to such recall. Kinesics is not concerned, as such, with the movement potential of the human species, but rather with those portions of the movement spectrum which are selected by the particular culture or patterned performance and perception. At the same time, as is strue with other cultural behavior, much of what happens and which is necessary to the proper performance of a social act cannot be recalled by the actor or the untrained spectator. I have long had the belief that as the child is taught to move, to view and meaningfully to reproduce movement, an integral part of his education is concerned with enhancing or preventing recall of much of this activity. (Birdwhistell 1970: 190-191)

Mis Kendoni arvustuses oli "transfix", on Birdwhistelli enda sõnades tegelikult "stance":

Stance is a term designed to cover a pattern of toal body behavior which is sustained through time, within which one or a series of constructions takes place, and which contrasts with a different stance. Stance subsumes position (p), (which is a statement of the relative position of all the body parts in space), locomotion (l), (the movement of the body through space), and velocity (v) (which covers sustained velocity of movement of the total body). (Birdwhistell 1970: 200)

Käitumistüüpide vastandused, mida võiks jaotada Mehrabiani semantilise ruumi alusel kolmeks, kui võimalus avaneb.

1. Unilateral-Bilateral: Mover favors right or left side of body, contrasts with inclusion of both sides in performance (not just handedness).
2. Specific-Generalized: Mover tends to utilize one body area for major proportion of kinesic activities as contrasted to more extensive utilization.
3. Rhythmic-Disrhythmic: Mover tends to adobt a definite rhythm within which he moves (often marked by kinemorphic or stance shift junctures) as contrasted to a clearly defined pattern of rhythm interruption (not just nonrhythmic).
4. Graceful-Awkward: Mover tends to make major proportion of movements in a directed, minimally interrupted manner, as contrasted to a start-stop-proceed action with a series of abortive inclusions. (Grace is characterized as containing minimal "searching" behavior in contrast to awkwardness where searching is maximized.)
5. Fast-Slow: (Not to be confused with the duration qualifier.) Mover tends to high velocity of production of kinemorph and kinemorphic constructions as contrasted to a low production rate.
6. Integrated-Fragmented: Integrated mover tends toward harmonic organization of various body parts (whether generalized or specific) whereas fragmented mover may divide body into nonharmonic - even apparently contradictory - parts. A finger, a hand, or an eye may seem to have existence independent of remainder of body activity. May involve the full division of the body into two spheres as: above and below pelvic girdle or (in one case) right through the middle of the body, leaving a right and left sphere.
7. Intertensive-Intratensive: Intertensive mover tends to be highly responsive to behavior of other communicants - engages in consistent check and modification behavior as contrasted to the intratensive mover, who appears to engage in extended autostiumlation but with minimal apparent strenuous rejection. At first these seemed aspects of the encounter-interaction process but, as research continued, it became clear that such behavior continued even after interaction was clearly in progress. As in the case of the "self-possessed-self-contained" type which follows, this typology has special significance for clinical observation.
8. Self-possessed-Self-contained: The self-possessed mover is characterized by a reduction of qualifier width without incongruence, by the harmonic organization of the body parts, by minimal searching behavior, and by what might be loosely characterized as "poise." Only the fact that self-possession seems to appear intermittently within or beyong and apparently quite independent of the qualities persuades me that this is a category of another order than quality. Self-possession appears to relate to social "ease" and "confidence" in interaction (neither of which terms have more than impressionistic value in this presentation). Our description of self-containment is equally impressionistic, characterized by seeming intratension: the general feeling is one of restraint and "avoidance" of stimuli. Category by category the behavior is congruent, but it is best characterized as systematically resistent to anychange in the interaction beyond narrowly established limits.
9. Mirror-Parallel: Mirror behavior is characterized by one or more actors acting in mirror image of a central actor. Parallel behavior occurs when two or more actors move in parallel.
10. Rhythmic-Disrhythmic: WHen the interactional behavior of two or more actors contains a clearly perceptible beat, introduced either in parallel or in series, such interaction is termed rhythmic. Disrhythmic interaction occurs when established rhythms are repeatedly interrupted.
11. Open-Closed: An interaction is termed open when the behavior is characterized by searching the environment for other stimuli. To the extent that the participants are so highly interactive that they do not respond appropriately to other stimuli in the milieu, the interaction is closed.

(Birdwhistell 1970: 215-219)

Tähenduse asemel kõneleb ta "tuletatud funktsioonist":

In other words, while the punctuational behavior can be located in the speech context in certain positions, the analysis has not yet reached a point where we can posit obligatory binding between linguistic and kinesic events. With this caveat, we may list a series of derived functions that markers play in the interaction sequence. By "derived function" I mean an observable set of behaviors in a given context which can be abstracted and interpreted as related. Since my condidence in such interpretation is, at the moment, relatively low, I prefer to use "derived function" rather than some kind of "meaning." (Birdwhistell 1970: 222)

Kineemi mõiste:

At the present writing, a kineme is:
a class of allokines which can be demonstrated in kinemorphs to be substitutable.
Note: If more than one allokine is discovered to be present in the same structural neighbourhood, the kine representing it may be either:

1. a mamber of more than one kinemic class
2. an insufficiently refined kine, or,
3. the morphology has been insufficiently analyzed and we are probably dealing with an intersection of levels in the behavioral stream.

(Birdwhistell 1970: 229-230)

Loomuomaselt kodeeritud käitumisest:

In the Cigarette Scene, the acts of lighting the cigarette, Gregort's manipulation of the match, and Doris' adjustment of her shoe strap may be termed instrumental behavior. Moreover, the fact that Doris and Gregory are seated for an extended conversation is, at one level, instrumental. To say that an act is instrumental, however, does not define it, in itself, as without signal or message value. The performance of any act in the presence of others must be comprehended as having the stamp of individual and social practice. Yet, at this writing, acts such as walking, smoking, eating, knitting, woodworking, still must be filed as "instrumental" and/or "task oriented" until we know more about their communicatice structure. (Birdwhistell 1970: 231)

Oo püha multimodaalsus:

Any discourse analysis, conversation analysis, communicational analysis, or interactional analysis which would attent to but one modality - lexical, linguistic, or kinesic - must suffer from (or, at least, be responsible for) the assumption that the other modalities maintain a steady or noninfluential state. (Birdwhistell 1970: 250)