While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Dr. Tylor says (Early History of Mankind, 44): "We cannot
lay down as a rule that gesticulation decreases as
civilization advances, and say, for instance, that a
Southern Frenchman, because his talk is illustrated with
gestures as a book with pictures, is less civilized than a
German or Englishman." This is true, and yet it is almost
impossible for persons not accustomed to gestures to observe
them without associating the idea of low culture. Thus in
Mr. Darwin's summing up of those characteristics of the
natives of Tierra del Fuego, which rendered it difficult to
believe them to be fellow-creatures, he classes their
"violent gestures" with their filthy and greasy skins,
discordant voices, and hideous faces bedaubed with paint.
This description is quoted by the Duke of Argyle in his
Unity of Nature in approval of those characteristics as
evidence, of the lowest condition of humanity.
Whether or not the power of the visible gesture relative to,
and its influence upon the words of modern oral speech are
in inverse proportion to the general culture, it seems
established that they do not bear that or any constant
proportion to the development of the several languages with
which gesture is still more or less associated. The
statement has frequently been made that gesture is yet to
some highly-advanced languages a necessary modifying factor,
and that only when a language has become so artificial as to
be completely expressible in written signs—indeed, has been
remodeled through their long familiar use—can the bodily
signs be wholly dispensed with. The evidence for this
statement is now doubted, and it is safer to affirm that a
common use of gesture depends more upon the sociologic
conditions of the speakers than upon the degree of
copiousness of their oral speech.
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materials that may imply negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or
language of a particular period or place. These items are presented as
part of the historical record and should not be interpreted to mean that
the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes implied.
Sign Language
Among North American Indians Compared with
that Among Other Peoples and Deaf-Mutes,
1881
