Kinesics Theory of Communication

By: Ray Birdwhistell

Joana S. DabalosAB-C2

Ray Birdwhistell

Ray Birdwhistell was born in Cincinnati in 1918.

He was an American Anthropologists who founded kinesics as a field of inquiry and research.

He died on October 19, 1994 because of liver cancer.

KinesicsStudy of human body motion

The nonverbal code system of bodily activity (a.k.a. body language)

The interpretation of of body language such as facial expressions, gestures or more formally, non-verbal behavior related to movement either any part of the body or the body as a whole.

One of the most powerful ways that human can communicate nonverbally.

Kinesics TheoryStates that human communication needs and uses all the senses and the information conveyed by human gestures and movements is coded and patterned differently in various cultures.

Birdwhistell pointed out that “human gestures differ from those of other animals in that they are polysemic, that they can be interpreted to have many different meanings depending on the communicative context in which they are produced”. 

States that human communication needs and uses all the senses and the information conveyed by human gestures and movements is coded and patterned differently in various cultures.

Birdwhistell pointed out that “human gestures differ from those of other animals in that they are polysemic, that they can be interpreted to have many different meanings depending on the communicative context in which they are produced”. 

Birdwhistell argued that all movements of the body have meaning (i.e. are not accidental), and that these non-verbal forms of language (or paralanguage) have a grammar that can be analyzed in similar terms to spoken language. 

Ray Birdwhistell: Kinesics Theory

Birdwhistell’s Six Key Assumptions

All body movements have meaning potential in communicative contexts. 

Behavior can be analyzed because of patterns and repetitions. 

Although body action has biological limits, the use of body motion in interaction is part of the social system. Different groups will therefore use gestures and any other movement of the body differently.

People’s visual bodily activity can influence others. 

Communicative functions of bodily activity can be studied. 

A person’s use of bodily activity will have unique, idiosyncratic aspects while also being part of a larger social system shared with others. 

Examples

Thinking of good things

Happy/laughing

Mad/angry

Praying

Sad/crying

Waving goodbye

Waving hello

SMOKE DOWN : Negative, secretive, suspicious

SMOKE UP : Confident, superior, positive

Examples

Examples

Examples

Examples

-End-Thank you & God bless.

“It's not what you say but how you say it.”