29: Interpreting Body Language: The Original Literacy

How old is literacy? Did literacy predate the development of written language? Can literacy move beyond written symbols into using knowledge to gain meaning from visual clues such as body language? This chapter attempts to explore the larger construct of literacy and show how making meaning is as original to humans as movement and language.

Today, literacy is understood by most people as being limited to the ability to read and write text. Literate individuals are thought of as people who effectively decode, create, and gain meaning from written words leading to success in completing tasks or in understanding a larger set of ideas. Portraying this singular emphasis on written symbols, the first definition in the American Heritage Dictionary defines literate as “able to read or write” (literate, 2004). Yet it is the second definition, which defines literate as one who is “knowledgeable or educated in a particular field or fields” (literate, 2004) that allows us to truly look at the concept of literacy apart from text. By applying this association between literacy and knowledge, a case can be made that literacy, or being knowledgeable in gaining meaning from symbols or clues, existed long before the invention of writing systems.