Embodiment in Human Communication

This article defines the present moment in the anthropology of embodied human communication as a moment of possible fusion between (a) the new conception of the living human body emerging in biology, cognitive science and neuroscience, and sociology and anthropology and (b) the advanced methodology and research on social interaction in the “interactionist” tradition, which is reinterpreted here as a study of socialized practices for interacting in, and inhabiting, the world with others. A growing number of studies of interaction are now focused on “multimodal” communication in complex material settings. The convergence of research programs is illustrated here by sociological research on dance and sports, by a practice-based approach to gesture, and by a selective overview of recent studies of multimodality. Particular attention is given to two influential theoretical programs, one by E. Hutchins and the other by C. Goodwin.