Gesturing, With or Without Intent 117
Although a symbol is very cultural, as the culture spreads, it
can become super-cultural. A good example is “thumbs up,” which
international peace-keeping troops with no single, common lan-
guage could use with each other. Contrast that with the sign of
fingers raised in a “V.” To Americans who served in World War II,
they see “Victory.” To Baby Boomers, it’s a peace sign. To a lot of
Brits, it is a way of flipping someone off if done with the back of the
hand toward the person. The supposed root of this is that warriors
would display their V-shaped fingers to the dying enemy they had
just hit with an arrow. The two fingers they held up had released
the deadly shaft.
Symbolic gestures can become a rich unspoken language when
the gestures carry a clear and succinct meaning, as is the case in
military hand signals, such as the “cover me” example in the last
chapter. The driving point is, through some cultural change, all
communicating parties learn the accepted meaning.
Illustrators and regulators
Illustrators and regulators are punctuation. Their power may
be learned by watching mom or dad, or people on TV—that is,
culture influences the shape of them—but they are still gestures
that come “naturally.” Examples of illustrators are finger pointing
as you accuse a person of something and using your forearm to
drive home your point. Regulators include using your hand similar
to a stop sign or dragging your extended fingers across your throat
to say “Cut.”