ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology

Anthropology

Language and linguistics are found in every culture to be distinctive and are thoroughly studied and researched by institutions in order to determine little gestures that are symbolic of something bigger. Body language is more of a physical ability to convey non-verbal messages and is a form of communication that may even be involuntary at times. Eye movements, facial expressions or body postures are usually closely scrutinized in order to realize the mind frame an individual is in. This form of communication is especially studied by students of psychology, or police forces that are trying to pinpoint thieves or other criminals. Entire juries have been conducted on the evidence based around body language. Language is verbal communication and is again a common form of expression in different types, such as poetry, prose, letters or spoken. Language varies from region to region as well as the accents in which it is spoken. When one faces a new culture in which the language spoken is not compatible with oneself, barriers emerge that are likely to cause a lot of distress in one's life. But body language is such that it cannot fail in communicating an individual's feelings, whether it is in the facial expressions or the body posture, the fall of the shoulders or the quirk of a brow.

In order to perform the experiment to observe communication methods used around my campus, I sat in the surrounding area of the main entrance of my school on the first day of term. As students streamed in and out, it was the perfect position to sit back and observe the many forms of expressions that students and parents were exchanging. My focus in this crowded public space was on the new arrivals to the school. New students generally take some time taking in their ...