Artifacts

Artifacts include an individual's clothing, lipstick, wedding ring, eyeglasses, scuffed shoes, and personal possessions like an attaché case or an expensive sports car. The clothing that one wears is an important message in a commu­nication situation. For instance, individuals often ask, when invited to a party or some other event, whether they should dress casually or formally. In this instance, people want to know how other guests will be dressed.

Sometimes artifacts are selected for the opposite effect. Younger genera­tions often choose clothing specifically because their parents find it inappro­priate. Artifacts make statements. They can communicate belonging or inde­pendence. The most uniform dress, conforming precisely with one culture's norms, might be considered outlandish or inappropriate in another culture. Body ornamentation— including tattoos, piercing, or painting—is culturally or co-culturally based.

Kinesics: Body Motion Communication

Edward Sapir wrote that we respond to gestures in accordance with an elab­orate and secret code that is written nowhere, known by none, and under­stood by all. Even though people can often identify a certain type of com­munication behavior when they see it, they may not be able to describe the behavior when asked.

Body motion language, like vocalic language, culture by culture is com­posed of distinctive elements that can be, by rules for coding, combined in a virtually infinite number of ordered combinations that rule the commu­nicative aspects of human behavior.

Finns and Japanese do not seem to have any body language. I say do not seem because in fact both cultural groups do use body language that is well under­stood by fellow nationals in each country. In both societies the control and disci­plined management of emotions leads to the creation of a restrained type of body language that is so subtle that it goes unnoticed by the foreign eye. Because Finns and Japanese are accustomed to looking for minimal signs, the blatantly demonstrative body language of multi-active Italians, Arabs and South Ameri­cans is very disconcerting for them (cultural shock). The danger is, of course, that overreaction sets in—a judgmen­tal reaction to the multi-active's expressive body language. Japanese consider Americans and Germans as charging bulls; Finns see the French as too clever, Italians as overemotional and even Danes as a bit slick.

According to Hall, we have specialized the language of the body to be congruent with everything we do; therefore it must be understood in its cul­tural context. Just as there are no universal words or sound complexes that carry the same meaning universally (the symbols of verbal language are to­tally arbitrary), so there are no body motions, facial expressions, or gestures that have identical meaning across cultures. With regard to body motion language, Ray L. Birdwhistell wrote, "Not only is kinesic activity systemat­ically patterned, but this pattern varies significantly from culture to culture and even from subgroup to subgroup." Even so, there is a prevalent belief by persons of any specific culture that they themselves practice a natural pat­tern of movement—communication through kinesics—that people of other cultures must have learned badly, not evolved to, or lost.

Research by Birdwhistell indicates that the body motion languages of French, Germans, and North Americans vary to a degree comparable to the range of differences heard when these languages are spoken. There is, at least for Western European languages, a set of necessary and formal body motion behaviors that are directly tied to linguistic structure. Studies show that the Kutenai of British Columbia move differently when speaking Kutenai than when speaking English. Fiorello La Guardia of New York spoke Italian, Yiddish, and American English. In studying film clips, kinesicists or any observer familiar with the three cultures could immediately determine which language he was speaking—even with the sound of the film clips re­moved. An equally manifest shift in behavior was evident in a U.S. Amer­indian who spoke Taos and English, and also in a Lebanese who was simi­larly transformed when switching from English to Arabic then French. There is a systematic relationship between audible and visible communica­tive behavior. They are coercive and interdependent language systems.

Cultures tend to concentrate activity in certain body areas and permit the activity of others only under certain limited circumstances, which is in­teresting in the study of national character. Even on fairly casual observa­tion, distinctions in body motion communication are so evident that the children of one family that frequently traveled internationally invented a body language game when waiting for inevitably delayed flights in airports. The children would try to guess from a distance the nationality of people (all in Western dress) from their gestures and body language. Then one of the children would sidle over near the speakers to hear what language they were speaking or otherwise identify nationality to see if their guesses were correct.

Birdwhistell also refers to people's movement as having "tertiary" sexual characteristics. Working with seven different cultures (Chinese, middle- and upper-class London British, Kutenai, Shushwap, Hopi, Parisian French, and North American), he found that persons in each culture could distinguish typically male communication behavior from typically female communica­tion behavior. Two types of movement that can easily be identified are pos­ture (including the angle at which legs and arms are held), and facial expres­sion. Tertiary sexual behavior can be described as a learned and patterned communicative motion system that acts in some cultures to identify both the gender of a person and the social expectancies of that gender.

North Americans have characteristics that are distinctly different from Europeans in how they occupy space with their bodies. A characteristic North American position is to sit with arms spread out, and a male will place his feet and legs apart. The position includes a slump and leaning back and is a type of sprawl that occupies a lot of space. This is rarely seen in a European, who will sit erect with legs and feet close together and arms placed close to the body, in a tight position occupying much less space.

One aspect of intercultural communication which is often open to misinterpretation is this one of smiling or laughing. Many researchers have argued that smiles or laughing are universal human char­acteristics which we all immediately understand. This is, of course, true. There is little doubt that any human being would know when some other human was smiling.

Communication research supports the view that there are some universal patterns of facial expression. There appears to be the most agreement that happiness is recognizable. However, cultural rules may dictate the use of a facial expression for other purposes. In China and Japan "happiness" may express anger or mask sadness, both of which cul­ture dictates one may not overtly show. A Westerner may be confused by the smiling explanation of an employee in Japan that she was absent because her mother died. The employee is smiling because one should not inflict the unpleasantness of grief on others. A smile portrays friendliness in one soci­ety, embarrassment in another, and in yet another may contain the warning that unless tension is reduced, attack will follow.

Physiologists have estimated that the musculature of the face can produce over twenty thousand different facial expressions.

While Americans primarily associate smiling with friendliness, a smile can mean something different in another culture. In Japan, people smile when they are sad, happy, apologetic, angry, or con­fused. In Korean culture, smiling signals shallowness and thought­lessness. The Korean attitude toward smiling is expressed in the proverb, "The man who smiles a lot is not a real man." Lack of smiling by Koreans has often been misinterpreted as hostility when Korean shopkeepers interact with non-Korean customers. After the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Byung Sik Hong, a Korean American management expert, began coaching Korean immigrants in Los Angeles and other counties about the importance of smiling and other ways to convey friendliness to Americans.

For other Asians, smiling can mean disagreement, anger, frus­tration, confusion, or a substitute for "I'm sorry" or "Thank you." When Puerto Ricans smile, the message may be "Please," "Thank you," "You're welcome," "Yes, what can I do for you?", or "Excuse me, please. May I see you for a moment?". For Puerto Ricans, the variation in meaning depends on eye expression and forehead movements.

• Americans smile primarily as an expression of friendliness. Peo­ple from other places may attach other meanings to it.

A summary of results of 134 Japanese medical students re­vealed that 69 percent interpreted smiling as a sign of happiness, 10.6 percent as a sign of disgust, 8.9 percent as sadness, 6.2 percent as contempt, and 2.5 percent as fear.

As of August 15, 2003, the government of Canada issued new specifications for passport photos. Canadians must now send in two photos with a neutral expression, meaning a closed-mouth, straight-ahead gaze. No more smiles. The purpose is to make it easier for security personnel to recognize the passport holder.

Unfortunately, from one cultural group to another there is a great deal of variability about when one smiles or laughs and what it should be taken to mean. The most obvious and the most often misinterpreted form of this is what in the west might be called "nervous laughter." Perhaps it is only a difference in the amount of smiling or laughter under such conditions, but it has been widely observed that Asians in general tend to smile or laugh more easily than westerners when they feel difficulty or embarrassment. This is, then, misinterpreted by westerners as normal pleas­ure or agreement, and the sources of difficulty are obscured or missed.

We believe that there is a connection between this non-verbal behavior and the tendency for Asians to use communication to promote interpersonal or group harmony. If we think of the smile as a natural means for humans to encourage interpersonal harmony, then we can understand that it is likely to occur when an Asian feels there is some disruption of this harmony. On the other hand, if someone feels that the purpose of speaking is to promote individual welfare or the transfer of information, he or she is likely to assume that a smile means that the individual is pleased and is, therefore, feeling that he or she is succeeding in his or her own personal ends.

A second aspect of kinesic behavior or body movement that is immedi­ately noticed when one travels between Asia and western countries is bow­ing. Most of us will be quite aware of the fact that shaking hands in the west is the most common form of greeting, especially when being introduced to someone or when seeing someone whom one has not seen for a long time. In Asia there is considerable variability in practices, which include bowing as the main form in Japan and Korea, but also sometimes including shaking hands when westerners are involved. The traditional Chinese practice of clasping one's hands before the chest while making a short bow is now rarely seen outside of movies depicting an earlier time.

There are several problems which arise with these practices. Such greet­ings are distributed differently in different Asian countries (Japanese and Koreans bow more frequently and more deeply than Chinese), and cultural changes are bringing about changes in these practices. Furthermore, in western countries changes are taking place in handshaking practices. For example, it is now generally assumed that when a woman and a man are introduced they will shake hands in acknowledgement of the introduction, especially, of course, in professional or business circles. It has only been relatively recently, however, that this practice has been widely accepted. Even just a few years ago, it was somewhat unusual for men and women to shake hands. They would generally have nodded to each other.

Kinesics can be classified as follows:

EMBLEMS (GESTURES). Emblems are body movements that can be translated into words and that are used intentionally to transmit a message. One type of emblem that is particularly important, perhaps ranking second only to facial expressions, is hand gestures. People talk with their hands. Hand gestures like the thumbs up or the thumb and forefinger circle (okay) sign, the palm outward gesture (silence, or stop), and circling a forefinger near- one's head (crazy) all have a widely understood meaning in the United States. But the meanings of these emblems may be quite different in another nation. For example, the thumb and forefinger circle is a sign for the sex act in some Latin American nations. The North American thumbs-up gesture of approbation has obscene "middle-finger" meaning in many Middle Eastern nations, in Australia, and in Nigeria. Imagine the amazement of many global TV watchers when the U.S. presidential nominee Bill Clinton signified his pleasure by the thumbs-up sign at the 1992 Democratic Convention. One can just envision the amazed reaction of global TV watchers whose interpretation of the thumbs-up gesture was different.

The homomorphic gestures may appear the same in form, but they carry different meaning in different cultures. Body motion language is nuanced and complex. Any "dictionary" of gestures can be deceptive if too literal, as though a gesture carries precise, denotative meaning.

As an example, a US, professor teaching at Bangkok University frequently put his hands in his pockets or held them behind his back while lecturing to his class. At the end of the semester, his polite Thai students gently informed him that individuals should hold their hands in front of them. They had been embarrassed and distracted by his nonverbal cultural error during the class (a course on intercultural communication).

There are gender differences as well as cultural differences in hand ges­tures. An emblem unique to Japanese women is the hand held in front of the mouth when smiling or laughing. People from the United States perceive this gesture as girlish, polite, and cute. Only women in Japan cover their mouth when smiling. Men never do.

Don't use the crooked-index-finger "come here" gesture with Japanese or other Asian people. Japan is not the only country where this gesture has negative connotations. In Yugoslavia and Malaysia, it is used to call animals; in Indonesia and Australia, the gesture beckons prostitutes; in Viet­nam, this gesture is used to call animals or to beckon an inferior. Frequently, when used between persons of equal status, it becomes an act of hostility. Among other Southeast Asians, it is a threaten­ing gesture to children and an insolent one to adults.

The hands are among the most expressive parts of the body. Immanuel Kant called them "the visible parts of the brain." There are entire books written on hand gestures.

Head. In addition to hand gestures, head movements can also communicate non-verbally. Like hand movements, head movements differ from one culture to another. In India the head gesture for a positive response to a question is a sideways movement which is perceived by most non-Indians as a head shake meaning no. But after visiting India for a period of time, the typical foreigner is likely to have picked up the sideways head nod. When the per­son returns to the home country and uses shaking the head sideways to mean yes, further confusion occurs. In Turkey, an up-and-down movement of the head conveys a negative rather than a positive expression (as in the United States).

French and Hispanic people indulge in the nose twitch, snort or sniff to express alertness, disapproval or disdain respectively. The Portuguese tug their earlobes to indicate tasty food, though this gesture has sexual connotations in Italy. In Spain the same action means someone is not paying for his drinks, and in Malta it signifies an informer. It is best to recognize these signs, but not embark on the risky venture of attempting to imitate them.

It is said that the mouth is one of the busiest parts of the human body, except in Finland where it is hardly used (except for eating and drinking). This is, of course, not strictly true, but most societies convey a variety of expressive moods by the way they cast their lips. The tight-lipped Finn shrinks away from such communicative indulgences as the mouth shrug (French), the pout (Italian), the broad and trust-inviting smile (American) or even the fixed polite smile of the Asian. Kissing one's fingertips to indicate praise (Latin) or blowing at one's finger-tip (Saudi Arabian) to request silence are gestures alien to the Nordic and Asian cultures.

In Albania, shaking the head from side to side means "yes" and nodding the head up and down means "no."

Pity the poor American husband taking his visiting Albanian in-laws to the airport for their return home. When the attendant checked their luggage, she asked the usual questions: Did you pack your own bags? Have you left your bags unattended at any time? Did anyone ask you to carry something on board for them? Imag­ine the attendant's alarm as the Albanians nodded their heads up and down. Picture the son-in-law's panic trying to convince her that Albanians shake their heads in the opposite direction from Americans.

Reversal of meaning of yes/no head gestures occurs in Bulgaria, too.

People from Southern India tilt their heads to one side or both to indicate agreement.

On many South Pacific Islands, they signal yes by raising their eyebrows.

The Rest of the Body. Multi-active cultural groups, far more than others, also use all the rest of their bodies to express themselves. For example, they have very mobile shoulders, normally kept still in northern societies. Latins keep their shoulders back and down when tranquil and observant but push them up and forward when alarmed, anxious or hostile.

Arms, which are used little by Nordics during conversation, are an indispen­sable element in one's communicative weaponry in Italy, Spain and South Amer­ica. Frequent gesticulating with the arms is one of the features Northern Europeans find hardest to tolerate or imitate, being associated with insincerity, overdramatization and therefore unreliability. As far as touching is concerned, however, the arm is the most neutral of body zones; even English will take guests by the elbow to guide them through doorways or indulge in the occasional arm pat to deserving subordinates or approaching friends.

As we move even further down the body, less evident but equally significant factors come into play. Even Northern Europeans participate in "leg language like everybody else. As no speech is required, it inflicts no strain on them." In gen­eral the "legs together" position signifies basically defensiveness against a back­ground of formality, politeness or subordination. Most people sit with their legs together when applying for a job; it indicates correctness of attitude. This position is quite common for Anglo-Saxons at first meetings, but they usually change to "legs crossed" as discussions become more informal. The formal Germans and Japanese can go through several meetings maintaining the legs-together position. There are at least half a dozen different ways of crossing your legs; the most for­mal is the crossing of ankles only, the average is crossing the knees, and the most relaxed and informal is the "ankle-on-knee" cross so common in North America.

When it comes to walking, the English and Nordics walk in a fairly neutral manner, avoiding the Latin bounce, the American swagger and the German march. It is more of a brisk plod, especially brisk in winter, when the Spanish dawdle would lead to possible frostbite.

It is said that the feet are the most honest part of the body: we are so self-conscious about our speech or eye and hand movements that we actually forget what our feet are doing most of the time. The honest Nordics, therefore, send out as many signals with their feet as the Latins do. Foot messages include tap­ping on the floor (boredom), flapping up and down (want to escape), heel lifting (desperate to escape) and multi-kicking from a knees-crossed position (desire to kick the other speaker). Nordic reticence sometimes reduces the kicking action to wiggling of the toes up and down inside shoes, but the desire is the same. Foot stamping in anger is common in Italy and other Latin countries, but virtually unused north of Paris.

In general, some research indicates that men use gestures more frequently than women, and the uneducated use gestures more frequently than the educated.

EYE CONTACT. Cultures have explicit rules regarding eye behavior such as staring, frequency of contact, and lowering the eyes (lowering the eyes possibly being a universal sign of submission). The same behavior can have different meaning in different cultures, giving rise to misinterpretation. For example, in some cultures direct eye contact signifies honesty and attentiveness, while in others it shows disrespect and boldness—it can even signal aggression. In North American culture, one can almost hear a scolding adult admonish a child, "You look at me when I speak to you!" In the same circumstances in most Latin American cultures, for the child not to lower the gaze and eyes is to disrespectfully challenge authority.

In public places, the French and North Americans may not attribute the same meaning to a nonverbal exchange, yet they believe the meaning to be identical. This reinforces negative opinions of each other. In a safe neigh­borhood, if there is eye contact of one North American passing another on the street, he or she will often nod, smile, and say hello. Having gone out walking, a respectable gray-haired man from France confided that if he were younger, he would think that pretty young North American women were encouraging contact.

Eyes are among the more expressive parts of the body. In multi-active cul­tures, speakers will maintain close eye contact while they deliver their message. This is particularly noticeable in Spain, Greece and Arab countries. Such close eye contact (some linear-actives and reactives would call it staring) implies dom­inance and reinforces one's position and message. In Japan this is considered improper and rude. Japanese avoid eye contact 90 percent of the time, looking at a speaker's neck while listening and at their own feet or knees when they speak themselves.

In societies where hierarchy is important, it is easy to detect the "pecking order" by observing people's eye behavior. Lower-ranking staff often look at superiors, who ignore them unless they are in direct conversation with them. When anyone cracks a joke or says something controversial, all the subordinates' eyes will switch immediately to the chief personage to assess his or her reaction. This is less evident in northern countries where head and eye switching would be much more restrained.

Gaze is an important type of regulator. A speaker who maintains eye con­tact with members of the audience is perceived as a forceful presenter in the United States. Student teachers are taught to maintain direct eye contact with members of their class. But direct eye contact with elders is perceived as disrespectful by some Native Americans and in Asian cultures like Japan.

It is extremely impolite to gaze at one's grandparent's eyes, Japanese chil­dren are taught to gaze at their grandparent's Adam's apple instead.

People from many Asian, Latino, and Caribbean cultures also avoid eye contact as a sign of respect. Many African Americans, es­pecially from the South, observe this custom, too. A master's thesis by Samuel Avoian, a graduate student at Central Missouri State University, tells how misinterpreting eye contact customs can have a negative impact when white football coaches recruit African Amer­ican players for their teams.

He reports that when speaking, white communicators usually look away from the listeners, only periodically glancing at them. They do the opposite when listening—they are expected to look at the speaker all the time.

Many African Americans communicate in an opposite way. When speaking, they tend to constantly stare at the listener; when listening, they mostly look away. Therefore, if white sports recruit­ers are not informed about these significant differences, they can be misled about interest and attentiveness when interviewing prospective African American ballplayers.

• Avoidance of eye contact may be a sign of respect. Cultural differ­ences affect how people use their eyes to speak and listen.

In multicultural America, issues of eye contact have brought about social conflicts of two different kinds: In many urban cen­ters, non-Korean customers became angry when Korean shop­keepers did not look at them directly. The customers translated the lack of eye contact as a sign of disrespect, a habit blamed for con­tributing to the open confrontation taking place between some Asians and African Americans in New York, Texas, and California. Many teachers, too, have provided stories about classroom con­flicts based on their misunderstanding Asian and Latin American children's lack of eye contact as being disrespectful.

On the other hand, direct eye contact has now taken on a new meaning among the younger generation and across ethnic borders. Particularly in urban centers, when one teenager looks directly at another, this is considered a provocation, sometimes called mad- dogging, and can lead to physical conflict.

Mad-dogging has become the source of many campus con­flicts. In one high school, it resulted in a fight between Cambodian newcomers and African American students. The Cambodians had been staring at the other students merely to learn how Americans behave, yet the others misinterpreted the Cambodians' intentions and the fight began.

Mad-dogging seems to be connected with the avoidance of eye contact as a sign of respect. Thus, in the urban contemporary youth scene, if one looks directly at another, this disrespects, or "disses," that person. Much like the archaic phrase "I demand sat­isfaction," which became the overture to a duel, mad-dogging may become a prelude to a physical encounter.

At the entrances to Universal Studios' "City Walk" attraction in Los Angeles, they have posted Code of Conduct signs. The sec­ond rule warns against "physically or verbally threatening any per­son, fighting, annoying others through noisy or boisterous activi­ties or by unnecessary staring. . . ."

• Direct eye contact among urban youths can signal an invitation to a fight.

HAPTICS (TOUCH). Although human beings are born with a need for touch, as evidenced by studies showing that infants will not survive without adequate touching, cultures train humans as to what and how much touch is acceptable as they mature. People in collective cultures touch each other more than those in cultures that stress the individual.

A set of cultural conventions guides who may touch whom, under what conditions, and where to touch. For instance, same-sex touching in the United States is more permissible than cross-sex touching. Male-to-male touching is much less frequent (except in sports) than female-to-female touching, perhaps out of fear that such touching might be perceived as indi­cating a sexual preference. The differences in the displays of touching are not only gender based, they are also determined by status. In business, higher-status employees generally initiate touch; lower-status employees are less likely to do so since the behavior could be interpreted as assuming a famil­iarity which does not exist.

Shaking hands is an example of differing cultural perceptions. In the United States, a moist handshake transmits a message that the individual is nervous or anxious. Most people in that culture feel that a firm handshake is appropriate, and that a weak handshake is wimpy. The Massai, who live in Kenya and Tanzania, barely let the palms touch during a handshake. In India, however, where handshaking is not practiced very widely as a form of greeting, a rather limp handshake is culturally appropriate. Indians gener­ally greet each other by holding their palms together in front of their chest, while saying Hello. An Indian may greet another person, such as a parent or teacher or other highly respected individual by touching his/her feet. In Korea and in Mali a person touches his/her right forearm with the left hand while shaking hands. Moroccans kiss the other person's hand while shaking. Kurdish people in Turkey bargain only while they are shaking hands, and they shake continuously until a deal is completed.

Islamic men may greet each other by embracing and kissing first on one cheek and then on the other, while saying an expression in Arabic like Salaam aleikum (Peace be with you). Thais greet each other with a wai (pro­nounced "wi"), which is executed by placing the hands together in a praying position in front of the chest. Japanese peo­ple greet each other with a bow. The depth of the bow depends on the other person's status. Bows entail bending at the waist at about 30 degrees, 45 degrees, or 90 degrees, depending on the relative status of the other person. One should not rise from the bow until the person of higher status has risen. The arms should be at the sides while bowing, and one should gaze down­ward.

Touch can cause misunderstanding in intercultural communication. In South Africa, a vigorous handshake is desirable, but in Latin America this is considered hostile; some cultures will not shake hands when they want to show respect. In Thailand, one does not touch another in public, and one never touches on the head. Gender roles also influence touching rituals. Culture carefully dictates the variations of acceptable touch. An orthodox Jew or a fundamentalist Muslim will not shake hands with (touch) a woman as a greeting or when being introduced, because such touch of a nonfamily female is not culturally permitted. North Americans in many social or busi­ness settings usually consider a light touch on the forearm between a man and a woman nonintrusive. However, even a small variation in the length or pressure of such a touch might well carry sexual overtones.