Information gathered from one and a half years of interviews with anthropologists, psychologists, ethologists, sociologists, and psychiatrists provides the source of answers for the questions this book addresses: How much do we communicate with words, and how much with gestures, postures, and movement? What can we learn from the study of nonverbal behavior? Is it really possible--or desirable--to "read" body language? Chapters discuss nonverbal communication as a fledgling science; nonverbal gender signals; courting behaviors; the silent, celluloid world of kinesics; the way the body itself communicates; nonverbal communication in animals; the human face; how the eyes communicate; hand gestures; the messages in distance and location; interpreting postures; body rhythms; the rhythms of the human encounter; communicating by smell and by touch; the sensory environment of the womb; the nonverbal code of childhood; nonverbal communication as a clue to character; the rules society observes for public behavior; and making conversation through nonverbal communication. (HOD)