31+ Edward T. Hall Quotes On Culture, Cultural Anthropology. And People

Edward T. Hall was an American anthropologist who developed the concept of proxemics, which is the study of how people use space to communicate nonverbally. He studied how different cultures used space and how it affected communication between people. He wrote several books and articles on the subject, including The Silent Language, which is considered a classic in the field of anthropology. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Edward T. Hall on culture, cultural anthropology., people.

Top 10 Edward T. Hall Quotes

1. Culture hides more than it reveals, and strangely enough what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants.
2. The essence of cross-cultural communication has more to do with releasing responses than with sending messages. It is more important to release the right response than to send the right message.
3. One of the most effective ways to learn about oneself is by taking seriously the cultures of others. It forces you to pay attention to those details of life which differentiate them from you.
4. Viewing movies in very slow motion, looking for synchrony, one realizes that what we know as dance is really a slowed-down, stylized version of what human beings do whenever they interact.
5. Because we have put ourselves in our own zoo, we find it difficult to break out.
6. The future for us is the foreseeable future. The South Asian, however, feels that it is perfectly realistic to think of a 'long time' in terms of thousands of years.
7. By their very nature bureaucracies have no conscience, no memory, and no mind.
8. Behind every piece of paper lies a human situation.
9. I may be able to spot arrowheads on the desert but a refrigerator is a jungle in which I am easily lost.
10. I have found the study of organisms to be a truly exciting experience, always interesting and sometimes humbling.

Edward T. Hall Quotes About Culture

We should never denigrate any other culture but rather help people to understand the relationship between their own culture and the dominant culture. When you understand another culture or language, it does not mean that you have to lose your own culture. — Edward T. Hall

... while infants will sync with the human voice regardless of language, they later become habituated to the rhythms of their own language and culture ... ... humans are tied to each other by hierarchies of rhythms that are culture-specific and expressed through language and body movement. — Edward T. Hall

Each culture has its own characteristic manner of locomotion, sitting, standing, reclining, and gesturing. — Edward T. Hall

We are only peripherally tied to the lives of others. It takes a long long time for us to become deeply involved with others, and for some this never happens. — Edward T. Hall

Culture is not made up but something that evolves which is human. — Edward T. Hall

The reason man does not experience his true cultural self is that until he experiences another self as valid he has little basis for validating his own self. — Edward T. Hall

Edward T. Hall Quotes About People

Age affects how people experience time. — Edward T. Hall

Theatre is about people, not buildings. Incalculable damage has been done to the expert talent a company needs - from wardrobe to lighting technicians. — Edward T. Hall

The information is in the people, not in your head. — Edward T. Hall

For him to have understood me would have meant reorganizing his thinking... giving up his intellectual ballast, and few people are willing to risk such a radical move. — Edward T. Hall

Edward T. Hall Famous Quotes And Sayings

Each organism, no matter how simple or complex, has around it a sacred bubble of space, a bit of mobile territoriality which only a few other organisms are allowed to penetrate and then only for short periods of time. — Edward T. Hall

The best reason for exposing oneself to foreign ways is to generate a sense of vitality and awareness - an interest in life which can come only when one lives through the shock of contrast and difference. — Edward T. Hall

Man is used to the fact that there are languages which he does not at first understand and which must be learned, but because art is primarily visual he expects that he should get the message immediately and is apt to be affronted if he doesn't. — Edward T. Hall

How man evolved with such an incredible reservoir of talent and such fantastic diversity isn't completely understood... he knows so little and has nothing to measure himself against. — Edward T. Hall

It is never possible to understand completely any other human being; and no individual will ever really understand himself - the complexity is too great and there is not the time to constantly take things apart and examine them. — Edward T. Hall

The drive to learn is as strong as the sexual drive. It begins earlier and lasts longer — Edward T. Hall

Shakespeare reveals human nature brilliantly: he shines a light on our instinctive desire to dominate each other. — Edward T. Hall

We live fragmented, compartmentalized lives in which contradictions are carefully sealed off from each other. We have been taught to think linearly rather than comprehensively, and we do this not through conscious design or because we are not intelligent or capable, but because of the way in which deep cultural undercurrents structure life in subtle but highly consistent ways that are not consciously formulated. — Edward T. Hall

When Western people train the mind, the focus is generally on the left hemisphere of the cortex, which is the portion of the brainthat is concerned with words and numbers. We enhance the logical, bounded, linear functions of the mind. In the East, exercises of this sort are for the purpose of getting in tune with the unconscious--to get rid of boundaries, not to create them. — Edward T. Hall

Two points that are very important points to remember and ask: Is it real and does it work? — Edward T. Hall

Now, you can't tell me, we have the only God in the whole world. You can't tell me that nobody else has God. — Edward T. Hall

Life Lessons by Edward T. Hall

1. Edward T. Hall's life teaches us that it is important to be open to new ideas and approaches, and to be willing to step outside of our comfort zones in order to make progress.
2. He also showed us the value of being able to communicate effectively and efficiently with people from different cultures and backgrounds, in order to better understand their perspectives.
3. Finally, he demonstrated the importance of having a passion for learning and exploring, and of being able to use our knowledge to help others.