Non-verbal Communication

The importance in social relationships of the exchange of information by non-verbal gestures and expressions, though long appreciated by artists and writers, has only recently become the subject of serious scientific study. The subject has been approached from different angles by psychologists studying the relevance of non-verbal communication to interpersonal relationships, by anthropologists interested in how these processes help to integrate societies, and by ethologists extrapolating the results of animal studies to human behaviour.
The scope of the volume ranges from formal analysis of the communication process by an information theorist (Professor Mackay) and by a linguist (Professor Lyons), to accounts of the role of expression in the theatre (Dr Jonathan Miller) and in the visual arts (Professor Gombrich). There are contributions to the discussion written from the point of view of the zoologist, the ethologist, the psychologist and the anthropologist.

Preface; Members of the study group; General introduction; Part I. The Nature of Communication: Introduction; 1. Formal analysis of communicative processes D. M. Mackay; 2. The comparison of vocal communication in animals and man W. H. Thorpe; 3. Human language J. Lyons; Part II. Communication in Animals: Introduction; 4. Some principles of animal communication J. M. Cullen; 5. The lower vertebrates and the invertebrates W. H. Thorpe; 6. Vocal communication in birds W. H. Thorpe; 7. The information potentially available in mammal displays R. J. Andrew; Part III. Non-Verbal Communication in Man: 8. A comparative approach to the phylogeny of laughter and smiling J. A. R. A. M. van Hooff; 9. Non-verbal communication in human social interaction Michael Argyle; 10. Non-verbal communication in children N. G. Blurton Jones; 11. Similarities and differences between cultures in expressive movement I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt; 12. the influence of cultural context on non-verbal communication in man Edmund Leach; 13. Non-verbal communication in the mentally ill E. C. Grant; 14. Plays and players Jonathan Miller; 15. Action and expression in western art E. H. Gombrick; Epilogue; References; Author index; Index.

The importance in social relationships of the exchange of information by non-verbal gestures and expressions, though long appreciated by artists and writers, has only recently become the subject of serious scientific study. This volume covers analysis of non-communication by experts across a wide range of disciplines from zoology to the arts