Bodytalk: The Meaning of Human Gestures

This world guide is the first attempt ever made to bring together in a single volume, human gestures from all around the world. More than 600 common gestures are illustrated, described, and explained. We all use gestures. They are the extra language we employ when words fail. We cross our fingers for luck, give the V sign, or offer a cheerful thumbs-up. In our own country we know exactly what these signs mean and we rarely use them inappropriately or mistake their meaning. In foreign countries, however, they may have different meanings, or we may encounter new gestures that we cannot understand. For the traveler this guide is indispensable. But it also has special appeal for anyone interested in human communication. And for the casual browser it contains hundreds of amusing examples of ways in which, almost without thinking, we use our hands, faces, and occasionally other body parts to insult, to threaten, to praise, to implore, and generally to communicate on a level deeper than the realm of spoken language.