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 anthropologist.

Table of Contents:
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.

Review :
'Non-verbal Communication lacks nothing of scholarship for the student of behaviour, but at the same time it is a book of relevance to the whole range of our activity. It nobly continues the humanist tradition of zoology in which by the study of animals we come to better understand ourselves.' New Society 'The outatanding merit of the volume is in reflecting the growing rapport between linguistic and behavioural research.' British Journal of Psychiatry 'Of the welter of ... books on ... aspects of communication I found this collective enterprise the most interesting and biologically illuminating.' Quarterly Review of Biology 'This volume represents an extremely valuable contribution ... the papers in conjunction with their editorial comments serve as an excellent ... introduction to research and serious thought in the field.' American Journal of Physical Anthropology