The Chattering Charades of Nature and Nurture： State-of-the-Art in Nonverbal Communication and Its Relationship With Verbal Messages

Employing a qualitative view of issues in nonverbal communication, the author offers an explanation of the nature-nurture debate. The anthropological view, taken by Birdwhistell and others, is compared with a Darwinian perspective. In particular, the author looks at how physical appearance, space, and gestures function in a natural way to protect the individuals who are participating in the exchange. Apparent deceit is frequently the result of such interactions. While the traditional arguments arising from religious tenets are discussed, the author explains how the nature approach has been reinforced in the 20th and 21st centuries with DNA and neurological investigations. In the study of nonverbal communication, the arguments about nature and nurture began in the middle of the 20th century with anthropologists, especially Birdwhistell, taking the nurture stance and others taking the nature stance. Ekman＇s nature stance on kinesics started from premises suggested by Charles Darwin. In large measure, it is because of Ekman＇s extensive work that the ＂balance＂ has somewhat shifted toward a nature view.

Converts vs Ordinary Villagers in Late Qing Civil Trials,and the Rise of the Boxers

Village civil cases in the Qing Dynasty mainly dealt with households and marriage,land,and debts,etc.It was not uncommon for village disputes to end up in court,which functioned as a vent to release the sense of grievance felt by the disputants.Seemingly trivial cases were thus not trivial at all for those concerned.Prefectural or county officials’mishandling of a petty civil case could spark village conflicts.As a consequence,such trials were seen as a sensitive issue in rural governance.After the 1860s,the unequal treaties had allowed Western missionaries to proselytize deep into the North China countryside,offering“political protection”for their converts in an attempt to maximize their number.The missionaries interfered extensively in village judicial actions,taking the side of their converts in civil lawsuits that pitted church members against ordinary people.This led to a general situation of“deceitful converts against honest men,”making the latter feel they were the victims of injustice.The channels that would have allowed the ordinary villagers to vent their grievances via litigation were thus blocked up.Their accumulated resentment burst its barriers and finally exploded in the violence of the Boxer Uprising.

Sexual conflict and deception in poison frogs

I review evidence that females deceive males in the context of sexual selection and sexual conflict in the green poison frog, Dendrobates auratus. In this species, males mate polygynously when they have the opportunity, but polygyny imposes a cost on female reproductive success. Some females attempt to guard their mates when those males are approached by other fe- males. This behavior involves both aggression toward other females and active ＂pseudo-courtship＂ of the male. This courtship is hypothesized to be a deceptive signal that ffmctions to prevent the male from mating with other females. Observational and com- parative evidence is presented in support of the predictions of this hypothesis. This form of deception is compared to similar be- haviors that occur in other species, and the possibility that other forms of deception occur in poison frogs is discussed