Body knowledge develops gradually, as a combination of perception of our own movements and observation of the movements of other people.
Similar to all other forms of knowing and attaching meaning to human actions, body knowledge rests on three processes: categorizing, abstracting, and generalizing.
Categorizing is discerning related and unrelated movements; grouping those that are similar. For example hammering is one kind of movement and stamping is another.
Abstracting is leaving out particularistic details to generate broader categories. Hammering involves the hands and stamping uses the feet, but both hammering and stamping employ the same effort qualities and can be abstracted as belonging to the broader category of punching movements.
Generalizing is establishing associations with movement that are intellectually or emotionally meaningful. For example, based on the various contexts in which I have observed punching movements, I may come to interpret these as angry actions.
Each individual has unique movement experiences, and every person will sort, abstract, and generalize in a slightly different way to generate a private lexicon of movement meaning. This lexicon of body knowledge is very useful.
As I write in Beyond Words, second edition:
Once the categories and associations in my body knowledge lexicon have been established, I can perceive a type of movement and fabricate a response rapidly, without having to reflect on the matter very much. So, if I am walking down the sidewalk and I see a man and woman punctuating their conversation with abrupt, forceful [punching] gestures, I may cross the street, simply because I do not want to get too close to two angry people.
Of course, the couple might not be angry; they might be simply impatient or excited. Or, they might belong to a cultural group that expresses many different feelings with abrupt, forceful gestures. Like the Roman god Janus, the meaning of any given movement is inherently two-faced. First, there is the “import” (Langer 1957: 129), intended or unawares, of the expressed form of the mover and, second, there is the “ascription,” again conscious or unconscious, on the part of the observer, interacting or just watching. Thus, it is practically inevitable that our body knowledge sometimes leads us to misjudge the meaning of movement behavior of others. When we misinterpret the meaning of a given movement behavior, and start generalizing, body knowledge becomes body prejudice.
In the next blog, I explore the topic of body prejudice further.