Mastodawn

Juho Mäntysalo 20h ago

compost_funeral

Is there a word for "body language accent" and is there a body of literature on this subject that I could find if I had the right keywords?

I mean things like styles of sitting attributed regionality ("asian squat", "western toilet"), levels of physicality in speech ("gag an italian by handcuffing them"), also things like the way a lot of white American men will have been trained to pitch a ball with a certain posture that reminds you of specifically baseball, or how nearly everyone who went through the Finnish school system has a certain angle to the way they sit. This way of holding oneself and expressing oneself which seems like actually the deepest level of cultural identification for many.

Asta 📚🧶🪡19h ago

@compost_funeral I don't know the answer to your question, but now I'm wondering what the certain way a Finn might sit is like and whether I do it.

compost_funeral 18h ago

@asta the only word I can use to describe it is "kunnolla"

Asta 📚🧶🪡18h ago

@compost_funeral That's definitely a word I recognise 😄

Valju Hiltunen 17h ago

@compost_funeral as a linguist doing research on interaction that uses the whole semiotic repertoire i should know if there was any attempts to systematize these things, but so far i haven't encountered any.

which of course doesn't mean it doesn't exist — i haven't read every possible theory after all. but if it existed, sooner or later i should encounter it. then i can come back to tell you.

Courtney 16h ago

@compost_funeral apparently British actors learn that one of the best ways to emulate an American is to lean all over things (doorways, furniture)

@courtney @compost_funeral American men tend to take up a lot of space, even when they walk. When I was living in Southern Germany, it was usually easy to spot the American tourists or soldiers stationed there, because their gait and general body language was noticeably different from the Germans.

Magali Cécile Bertrand 16h ago

@compost_funeral the way people sit, walk, or swim for example are what the anthropologist Marcel Mauss calls a technique du corps (a body technique, in English, maybe?), it is a bit different than paraverbal communication.

Magali Cécile Bertrand 16h ago

@compost_funeral if you read French, you can find this text here (Mauss begins with a comment on walking and swimming) : https://classiques.uqam.ca/classiques/mauss_marcel/socio_et_anthropo/6_Techniques_corps/Techniques_corps.html

Marcel Mauss, «Les techniques du corps» (1934)

Une bibliothèque numérique unique et originale dans le monde francophone en sciences sociales et humaines, développée en collaboration avec l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, fondée et dirigée par Jean-Marie Tremblay, bénévole, professeur de sociologie au département des sciences humaines du Cégep de Chicoutimi.

☮ ♥ ♬ 🧑‍💻15h ago

@compost_funeral “ body language accent"

The idea is certainly recognised that culture has a part in body language. An example that comes to mind is the ‘outing of an Eastern European’* during the “Cold War” by the way an individual held a bunch of flowers; By the stems, instead of upright as in Western culture.

* The source, Joe Navarro, FBI Retd., founding team member of ‘Behavioral Analysis Program’ who mentioned this detail on his Spycatcher PsychologyToday blog.

Andii אַנדִֽי 2h ago

@peterrenshaw @compost_funeral
... and there was that counting on fingers scene in Inglourious Basterds ...

woe2you 15h ago

@compost_funeral Is the Asian squat different from the Slav squat?

kym 📚🐉15h ago

@woe2you @compost_funeral i reckon yes. asian squat is when entire foot is flat on the ground. in slavic squat heels often don’t touch the ground. source: i’m from almaty, where both squats are common

woe2you 15h ago

@kym @compost_funeral Fascinating, thanks.

compost_funeral 8h ago

@woe2you to my understanding both "asian squat" and "slav squat" refer to heels fully on the ground, it is also sometimes called the "developing world squat" or even "toddler squat" because the common factor is that humans pretty much all sit like this if they haven't been trained out of it by chairs always being available.

Toby Jaffey 14h ago

@compost_funeral There might be some good references in The Naked Ape, here’s a clip from the TV series https://youtu.be/lNoF_TOhq30?si=Ao48q2d5MK1xBoPK

Desmond Morris: The Human Animal - Language of the body

YouTube

@compost_funeral I have no name for this (but it should have one!), but perhaps a better one for Americans is that I think American men are the only people who do a "figure 4" leg cross.

David Mankins 14h ago

@compost_funeral

I would hazard that, if it has been done, it’s been done recently, because it’s only been a few years that inexpensive handheld video has been available. I don’t know how you would collect data, otherwise.

Hmm. Perhaps from TV dramas?