Min Tanaka, the master of the Japanese dance 'butoh' began his address at the Barcelona congress dedicated to dance with the following words: 'We live with our bodies and we perceive the world by keeping the eyes of our bodies open'. The statement is provocative in it obviousness. The 'movement' aspect of all forms of human activity is undeniable, yet it is rarely noticed. We move, i.e. use movement, we emit movement, movement is a means of transmission of many signals and signs, significant as elements of human communication. They are the a u x i l i a r y m e a n s of speech, supportive to the basic language transmission. (Guiraud 1974, Birdwhistell 1952) or the 'communicative aspects of the learnt and structurized behaviour of a moving body' (Birdwhistell 1952). When, in the mid 1970s, the authoress started her studies on movement symbolism, terms such as 'non-verbal communication', 'anthropology of the body', 'kinesics', or 'proxemics' were, as a matter of fact, only coming into use and works by Edward Hall, Ray Birdwhistell, Michael Argyle, Umberto Eco and other scholars dealing with the subject were not available in Poland for obvious reasons. The Hidden Dimension by Edward Hall was translated into Polish in 1976, the first works of Umberto Eco in 1972. Books by Argyle and Birdwhistell are known only in original versions and to narrow circles of specialists till now. Both kinesics and proxemics are close to particular approaches in cultural anthropology. They all concern the problems of human understanding of the surrounding world and human self-reflection. Within the recent 10-15 years the world has 'shrunken'. Coming into touch with 'the others' which earlier was experienced only by the minority, now is more and more common. We learn foreign languages, we also learn the 'body language' which,being the common feature of all human beings, is by no means unequivocal, contrary to what was believed and is sometimes still believed. Besides the gestures and movements which are really universal being determined by the body build, there are also some, as numerous as the former ones, which are culture-related. The article deals with the role of forms and means of self-presentation in contemporary culture.Most interesting for me is the problem if, having gained particular knowledge on non-verbal codes as well as the awareness of their existence, we know how to use them. At this stage of my studies I concentrated on the scope of the usage of body language. Quite narrow as a matter of fact, focused on manipulating people and watching their reactions and movements in order to reveal their hidden motives. Knowledge of 'movement, another area of speech' treated in this way, instead of being the key to the cognition of man becomes no more than a picklock.
When studying our own culture we are in danger of falling into platitudes, clichés and simplifications and it is by no means easy to obtain a new, fresh look. Fortunately, the possibility of sharpening and refining our perception has been proved by a number of studies published in the 1990s. They confirm that ethnologists use the depth of focus quite properly, recording and analyzing phenomena 'within their reach', even when they point their camera at themselves, as the amateur film-maker does. Poland, for the last 15 years, has experienced rapid transformation of the forms of interpersonal relationships and of interactions. Many social norms and the basic canons of ethics have been changing for much longer. General political and social situation of the 1980s allowed neither for extensive external contacts nor free flow of information. After the restrictions had been slackened and later disappeared, the Polish society became involved into changes happening at bewildering speed that for its considerable part were not only difficult to accept but also hardly possible to perceive. Besides, there was an enormous import of new cultural patterns, meanings and messages not known within Polish culture before, some of them even incompatible with it.The authoress has distinguished so far three groups of issues stemming from the interwoven fabric of new and old elements. The first and largest group could be referred to as 'the theatre of everyday behaviour'. It includes people's everyday behaviour at home, at work and between these two areas of human activity. Relationships among household groups. Relationships and interactions among workmates. Forms and ways of self- presentation, roles people play and masks they wear. Especially worth studying are the patterns and scenarios of behaviour when people are somewhere 'between', 'on their way'. The second category of problems includes new forms of 'conversation' ranging from complete anonymity to extreme exhibitionism and from refusal of communication to imposing oneself. These forms of communication include talk-shows and interactive TV programs, together with TV shows of the 'Big Brother' and reality show type. Problems of new forms of reality belong to the third group.
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