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GENERAL AND THEORETICAL
403
Beyond Culture.
Edward
T.
Hall.
Garden
City: Anchor/Doubleday,
1976. 256
pp.
$7.95
(cloth). Richard
L.
Lanigan
Southern Illinois University
Edward Hall’s fifth book
is
both a summary
of
many themes first raised in his volume on
proxemics in
1959
and a fresh insight more
reminiscent of a psychologist than an anthro-
pologist. The psychological flavor appears epi-
grammatically in a double index to the book.
First, there is the “Index of IDEAS and tech-
niques of TRANSCENDENCE’ (p.
245).
Im-
mediately following is an “Index of Themes”
(p.
247)
in addition to the normal index one
finds in most textbooks. The indexes signal a
selfconsciousness
of
the main proposition ad-
vanced by Hall,
viz.,
“What is called for is a
massive cultural literacy movement that is not
imposed but springs from within” (p.
6).
This
movement of the collective individual would
begin to relieve the two cultural crises in the
contemporary world of human experience. One
crisis is the population/environment connec-
tion and the other, “equally lethal” (p.
l),
is
man himself.
The analysis offered by Hall covers
15
chap-
ters beginning with the paradoxical nature of
culture, where persons and their mechanical/
technological extensions are confused. In a
populist flourish, Hall labels this tendency the
“ET screen” (p.
25).
An Extension Transfer-
ence emerges where one intellectually confuses
an extension with the process extended. Hall
readily admits this issue is not new, being the
focus of the Korzybski heritage of General Se-
mantics.
Yet,
Hall does make the heuristic
point that culture
per
se
is now a prime, sys-
tematic example of ET.
Much of the core of the book
is
an introduc-
tory survey of culture as an anthropologist en-
counters
it.
Hall reviews basic categories of cul-
tural behavior including verbal/nonverbal
communication, the use of action chains, time/
space context problems, and exchange systems
involving memory, imagery, and identification.
His primary illustration is postwar Japanese
culture, which he pursues in some detail; he
avoids for the most part reusing material al-
ready offered in his earlier work. In this sense,
the reader familiar with Hall’s other books feels
a sense of completion and the unfamiliar reader
is tempted to look back for more of this fasci-
nating explication.
The serious contribution of this popularized
book is the second example that Hall discusses:
the Spanish-American subculture of New Mex-
ico. In a brief reference to the organizing ac-
tivities of Reyes Lopez Tijerina (including the
armed raid on the Tierra Amarilla court-
house), Hall illustrates the practical conse-
quences of culture as ET. This example sug-
gests in a meaningful way how cultural identity
and personal identity are often confused (ex-
tended) with tragic consequences. There is little
surprise, then, as Hall concludes with a chapter
on culture as identification. Here various psy-
chiatric models of identification become vehi-
cles for interpreting culture. Thus we have the
foundation of the book and its suggestive title:
man must journey beyond culture to live the
process of identification. Identification is the
“bridge between culture and personality” (p.
Beyond
Culture
is a must for anyone who
requires a readable, exciting introduction to
intercultural communication. My own experi-
ence suggests the book is an excellent first guide
for students in the difficult area
of
cultural per-
ception and expression. Hall’s use of a foreign
culture and a
U.S.
subculture serves to
illus-
trate by comparison and contrast the everyday
experiences that readily explain culture. In-
deed, with Hall we feel a sense of identification
that transcends the mere description of other
people and their world views. By discussing his
experience of living in diverse cultural settings,
Hall entices the reader to share his perceptions
by identifying in their humanity. Finally, Hall
brings a sense of personal focus to his writing
that is frequently disarming in its candor:
“I
will limit my discussion to those things
I
have
discovered personally, in the course of my own
psychoanalysis, that have worked for me and
that
I
have observed working in those
I
know
well” (p.
204).
The ET screen
is
completely re-
moved in this book; we move beyond culture:
we discover a new person, Edward Hall.
21
1).
Anthropology: The Study
of
People.
John
Frzvdl
and
John
E
I’fqftv
New York: Har-
per’s College Press (Harper and Row),
1977.
xvi
+
588
pp.
$14.95
(cloth).
Larry
L.
Naylor
North Texas State University
In the constant review
of
introductory text-
books, an activity we seem to be engaged in
with increasing frequency of late, one quickly
begins to recognize that which is always pre-
