A Cultural History of Gesture: From Antiquity to the Present Day

People are often inclined to view our gestures as something "natural". Yet a closer look at history tells us that they change from one period to another, and that these changes can provide us with vital insights into social and cultural developments of the past. This book sets out to explore such changes in the development of gestures - from modes of walking and oratorial gesture in Greece and Rome to the origin of the modern handshake, from the arm akimbo in Renaissance portraiture to early modern table manners, from Spanish tavern sociability to the modern kiss. These discrete accounts place the history of gestures in their wider cultural context and together form a vivid picture of life and manners through the centuries.