Edward T. Hall – författare

This book explores the topic of time as a cultural element; that is, how do different cultures express and use time, consciously or unconsciously? Because time is one of the fundamental structures of culture, culture plays a crucial role in understanding time as a cultural structure. The Dance of Life joins a group of books that have explored human beings, culture, and behavior. It examines the most intimate experiences: how do individuals relate to one another despite being isolated by invisible rhythms and invisible walls of time? We examine time as a language, a principle that organizes any activity, as a factor of composition and integration, a means of setting priorities and organizing the material that gives us experience; as a control mechanism that reflects the course of events; as a criterion for judging competence, effort, and success; and finally, as a system of private messages that reveal how individuals perceive themselves, indicating whether they are capable of agreement among themselves. One of the purposes of this book is to consider how living organisms live in a single communicative world.