Part 1: Symbolic Language
1. For this assignment, I used my younger sister as my conversation partner. We both thought this first part of the experiment was significantly challenging within the first few minutes. Within the first few minutes, she was the only individual who could carry the conversation since I had the inability to speak, but instead could respond with grunts, pitch raises, expressions, and body language. At first, there were gaps of silence within the conversation before a notable shift had taken place while my partner tried to figure out how to phrase her wording. From my observation, the conversation took a more simplistic turn as I was being asked mainly, 'yes' or 'no' questions. Some of these questions including: Was your day good or bad? How are you feeling? Or, my partner would instruct me to give a certain gesture if I agreed or disagreed with something that she had stated. Within about eight minutes, the conversation started to flow a bit more due to the adjustments that were made. My partner was able to understand how I felt by reading my expressions and paying attention to the gestures I made in response to her questions.
2. Within this part of the experiment, while I attempted to be in more control of the conversation, my partner had a much better handle on it. This lead to my partner initiating most of the topics, along with changing the subject when my gestures or expressions became incomprehensible. As I mentioned above, most of the questions were made up of simply, 'yes' or 'no.' Along with this, she asked how I felt about certain subjects by asking I held up my fingers to sign a number, "On a scale of one to ten." Because I conducted this experiment with only one individual, I was unable to report on whether I was excluded or not. However, from my observations with the gaps of silence within the beginning, I predict it being a very likely possibility. Utilizing words draws the attention of other individuals since they're able to directly comprehend what you're trying to communicate with them. With all this information gathered, I can conclude that my partner had the most power within this conversation with her ability to speak and ask questions.
3. With what I'm able to gather from how the conversation shifted tones with me being unable to speak, I believe the speaking culture has the greater ability of communicating complex ideas within their population. This is because they are able to go in depth and in detail with the language they have created and speak while a population who lacks this ability, will end up more simplistic within the long run. From observation, I believe the culture whose able to communicate would view themselves to be more above then the individuals who lack the ability to speak as they do. This is because the culture who possesses the ability to speak, may perform more complex tasks and possesses the emotional capability of understanding the other person more. There are a few mirrors of these ideology within modern society today. For one, their is the relationship between humans and their pets. Pets are not able to communicate with words, but their body language or the sounds they make can get the message across to what they may want or don't want. Furthermore, we are not able to hold complex conversations between them. To add, many humans also view themselves to be more complex and above the thought processes of animals since they are not able to hold complex conversations between one another. Furthermore, there is also the possibility of a foreigner coming into another country and lacking the ability to speak that country's native tongue. Because of this, certain individuals may lead to be confused or even dismissive of this individual because they are not able to comprehend them like they are able to with the other's who speak in their own language.
Part 2: Speaking Without Expression
1. Within this part of the experiment, it was indeed easier to bring more complex ideology within the conversation. However, it was hard for my partner to comprehend how I felt about those ideas, because of her inability to read my body language, tone of voice, or recognize gestures. Despite this, I thought this was easier then the first part of the experiment, because I was at least able to speak and hold the conversation better. Though, my partner did end up struggling trying to figure out if I was asking questions or saying a general statement due to my inability to alter my tone of voice. I also observed her eyes wandering my expression as if she was trying to still figure out how I felt about certain questions she asked me.
2. After this experiment, I further realized how important non-speech gestures, expressions, and voice tones were when applied to a conversation. Expression allows us to understand and communicate better with what the individual may be feeling, especially emotionally. Words, especially when they carry emotion are significant when it comes to what's comprehended within the conversation. Without emotion or expression, is significantly challenging to determine how the individual feels about what their partner in the conversation is saying as well.
3. Being perceptive to body language is useful for surviving, obtaining resources, and reproduction for a variety of reasons. Survival wide, reading body language is significant for an individual being able to perceive and pick up on possible threats. These threats could come in a variety of ways. If someone raises their voice, the flight or fight response is triggered as a natural response to possible danger. Additionally, communicating possible threats to other individuals is useful for survival. It would be hard to distinguish what is a threat and what is not if humans only spoke in a monotone voice. Communication is also useful for obtaining resources, since we are able to communicate where those resources possibly are and if they are usable or not usable. Expression is especially important for reproduction. When humans feel comfortable with one another, they often are generally relaxed, calm, and respond in positive mannerisms. These emotions are visible through our sense of expression. Without body language especially, reproduction would be significantly more challenging.
4. Sometimes, because young children's brains are still developing, they are unable to comprehend certain expressions fully. They may pick up on the basic ones, but certain aspects such as sarcastic comments or knowing the difference from a sincere comment or insincere one. If the child continues like this, they may develop a learning disorder, or have trouble comprehending social cues within the future. Individuals who also possess certain disorders may have trouble picking up on social cues, such as social-emotional agnosia. On the other hand, body language does not solve everything. Basic necessities such as eating or drinking are still possible. Individuals who are known to be good liars may also be aware of how to correct their body postures or expressions when not telling the truth, which may send up false flags to the individual they are lying too. Additionally, body language can always be misinterpreted and not one hundred percent accurate to how the person chooses to perceive it.
Good opening description of your part (A) experiment and well done on your discussion of control and power.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your conclusion regarding the two cultures and the attitude of the speaking to the non-speaking culture.
Regarding your example, I agree that the this experiment mirrors the situation of non-English speakers coming to this country and trying to communicate with native speakers. Since this is an anthropology class, lets stick with human/human examples. Pets aren't independent individuals and are dependent upon us for their care. That sets up a completely different power structure than what we are looking for here.
Part (B)
Good description of this part of the experiment.
I don't disagree with your conclusions regarding the information we receive from body language, but you are only considering the situation where body language matches and supports the information you receive from spoken language. What does it tell you when the body language doesn't match the spoken language? Humans tend to use body language as a type of lie detector. If spoken words don't match with the body language, we are more inclined to believe the body language and doubt the words. Think about how being able to detect liars might help an individual's ability to survive and reproduce (which applies to the next section).
Okay on the benefits of body language, but what type of benefits do you get by being able to detect liars?
While I see your point on the issue of sarcasm, body language is the very first language children learn and they can also be more perceptive than adults. You talk about "learning disorders", but your causal relationship is a little backward there. The learning disorder cause the inability to read body language, not the other way around. A specific example of this are those in the autism spectrum.
Yes, people can lie... but it is actually very difficult to make your body language lie. In fact, body language is one way to detect lies, so I wouldn't want to give up my ability to read body language in this situation. Under what conditions might body language be interpreted? This actually closer to what I was looking for here. Do all cultures use the same system of body language? They all use different systems of spoken/written language, so why would we assume their body language isn't different? If you travel to another country, can you trust the information you get from their body language?