Universals and diversity in gesture: Research past, present, and future

摘要: Abstract At the dawn of anthropology, gesture was widely considered a “universal language”. In 20th century, however, this framing fell out favor as anthropologists rejected universalism in relativism. These polemical positions were largely fueled by high-flying rhetoric and second-hand report; researchers had neither data nor conceptual frameworks to stake substantive positions. Today we have much more data, but our remain underdeveloped often implicit. Here, I outline several emerging tools that help us make sense universals diversity gesture. then sketch state knowledge about handful gestural phenomena, further developing these on way. This brief survey underscores clear conclusion: is unmistakably similar around world while also being broadly diverse. Our task ahead put polemics aside explore duality systematically – soon, before dwindles further.