The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

THE BOOK OF TELLS
behaviour started to become fashionable, and the English
began to lose interest in gesture. 22
Historically the French have moved in the opposite
direction. The French are enthusiastic gesticulators, but
this wasn't the case during the sixteenth century. Before
Catherine de Medici of Florence arrived in France to marry
Henry II, French courtiers made very little use of gesture,
regarding the spectacle of flailing arms as rather common
and vulgar. By the Restoration, however, the French had
joined the ranks of the gesticulating nations, and they have
remained there ever since.
If you compare an Italian with a Frenchman, you'll
notice that their expressive gestures differ in several ways.
First of all, the Italian moves his hands around much more
than the Frenchman. What's more revealing, however, are
the positions that the fingers assume while the hands
are gesticulating. As a rule the French tend to use more
open postures of the hand, while the Italians show a
preference for 'precision grips', where the thumb and forefinger,
for example, are pressed against each other, or the
tips of all five digits are joined together. Another clue to
nationality is to be found in the rhythm of gesticulation -
French movements tend to be more languid and evenpaced,
whereas Italian gesticulation is more staccato and
varied in its pace. Then there's the geometry of gesticulation
- in other words, the space through which the hands
move when they're gesticulating. Here we find that the
French tend to confine their movements to the hands and
forearms, while the Italians enlist the upper arms as well-
As a result, Italian gestures are more expansive and
expressive.
Another group that gesticulates a lot, but who don't use
322