Abstract
The Babukusu people of Kenya are highly stratified and gendered in their social organization and relationship. Two areas where this division is highly pronounced are male circumcision, which enhances and enforces masculinity, and conventionalized use of body-parts to convey information and messages. In this chapter we describe some differences in the use of communicative gestures among the Babukusu. While the taxonomy is not comprehensive, it provides some information on hand and arm gestures, daringness and boastful gestures, taunting, and greeting gestures among others, and it illustrates how the genderization of these communicative gestures parallel the gendered form of expectations observed within the community. This initial work is against the assumption that the documentation of the language of a people must be comprehensive, subsuming both the verbal and nonverbal components. Finally, the investigation reveals the connection of language, culture, and society, especially by linking of some linguistic features with some social categories.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abercrombie, D. 1956. Problems and Principles in Language Study. London: Longmans.
Agwuele, A. 2014. A Repertoire of Yoruba Hand and Face Gestures. Gestures 14 (1): 70–96.
Agwuele, A. 2015. Nonverbal Message: Yoruba View of ‘Deviant’ Male Hairstyles. In Body Talk and Cultural Identity in the African World, ed. Augustine Agwuele, 162–180. Sheffield: Equinox.
Agwuele, A. 2016. Popular Culture and the Study of Africa. In Oxford Bibliographies Online: African Studies, ed. Thomas Spear, No page numbers. New York: Oxford University Press. Available online: https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0056.
Altman, I. 1975. The Environment and Social Behavior: Privacy, Personal Space, Territory, and Crowding. Monterey, CA: Brooks-Cole.
Asante, M.K. 1990. Kemet, Afrocentricity, and Knowledge. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Ayobade, D. 2015. Fela’s Clenched Fists: The Double “Black Power” Salute and Political Ideology. In Body Talk and Cultural Identity in the African World, ed. Augustine Agwuele, 37–57. Bristol: Equinox.
Baduel-Mathon, C. 1969. Pour une sémiologie du geste en Afrique Occidentale. Semiotica 3 (3): 245–255.
Baron, R.A. 1986. Self-Presentation in Job Interviews: Where There Can Be Too Much of a Good Thing. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 68: 16–28.
Bourdieu, P. 1986. The Forms of Capital. In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, ed. J. Richardson, 241–258. New York: Greenwood Press.
Brookes, H.J. 2001. O Clever ‘He’s Streetwise.’ When Gestures Become Quotable: The Case of the Clever Gesture. Gesture 1 (2): 167–184.
Brookes, H.J. 2004. A First Repertoire of South African Quotable Gestures. Linguistic Anthropology 14 (2): 186–224.
Brookes, H.J., and V. Nyst. 2014. Gesture in the Sub-Saharan Region. In Body-Language-Communication: An International Handbook on Multimodality in Human Interaction, ed. C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S.H. Ladewig, D. McNeill, and J. Bressem, vol. 2, 1154–1161. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Caprile, J.-P. 1995. Morphogenèse numérale et techniques du corps: des gestes et des nombres en Afrique Centrale. Intellectica 1 (20): 83–109.
Claessen, A. 1985. Investigation into the Patterns of Non-Verbal Communication Behavior Related to Conversational Interaction Between Mother Tongue Speakers of Swahili. In Swahili Language and Society, ed. J. Maw and D. Parkin, 159–193. Vienna: Afro-Pub.
Downs, A.C., and S.K. Harrison. 1985. Embarrassing Age Spots or Just Plain Ugly? Physical Attractiveness Stereotyping as an Instrument of Sexism on American Television Commercials. Sex Roles 13 (1/2): 1–19.
Eastman, C.M., and Y.A. Omar. 1985. Swahili Gestures: Comments [vielezi] and exclamations [viingizi]. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 48 (2): 321–332.
Efron, D. 1972. Gesture, Race and Culture. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.
Ekman, P., and W.V. Friesen. 1969. The Repertoire of Nonverbal Behavior: Categories, Origins, Usage, and Coding. Semiotica 1: 49–98.
Ekman, P., and W.V. Friesen. 1977. Nonverbal Behavior. In Communication and Social Interactions, ed. P.F. Ostwald, 37–45. New York: Winston & Sons.
Ekman, P., W. Friesen, and J. Hager. 2002. Facial action coding system. Salt Lake City: Research Nexus eBook.
Elfenbein, H.A., and N. Ambady. 2002. On the Universality and Cultural Specificity of Emotion Recognition: A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Bulletin 128: 203–235.
Hall, E.T. 1966. The Hidden Dimension. New York: Doubleday.
Hall, J.A. 1984. Nonverbal Sex Differences: Communication Accuracy and Expressive Style. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Harrigan, J.A., and D. O’Connell. 1996. How Do You Look When Feeling Anxious? Facial Displays of Anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences 32: 851–864.
Heslin, R. 1974. Steps Towards a Taxonomy of Touching. Paper presented at the annual meeting of Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.
Keeley, M.P., and A.J. Hart. 1994. Nonverbal Behavior in Dyadic Interaction. In Dynamics of Relationship, ed. S.W. Duck, 135–162. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kendon, A. 1967. Some Function of Gaze-Direction in Social Interaction. Acta Psychologica 26: 22–63.
Kendon, A. 1992. Some Recent Work from Italy on Quotable Gestures (‘Emblems’). Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 2, 77–93.
Kita, S., and J. Essegbey. 2001. Pointing Left in Ghana: How a Taboo on the Use of the Left Hand Influences Gestural Practice. Gesture 1 (1): 73–95.
Moges, Y. 2015. Nonverbal Communication Codes Among the Hamar: Structures and Functions. In Body Talk and Cultural Identity in the African World, ed. A. Agwuele, 133–146. Bristol: Equinox.
Noller, P. 2005. Behavioral Coding of Visual Affect Behavior. In The Sourcebook of Nonverbal Measures, ed. V. Manusov, 141–150. Mahwah, NJ: LawrenceErlbaum.
Olofson, H. 1974. Hausa Language About Gesture. Anthropological Linguistics 18 (1): 25–39.
Orie, O.O. 2009. Pointing the Yoruba Way. Gesture 9 (2): 237–261.
Sanders, K.W. 2015. The Convergence of Language and Culture in Malawian Gestures: Handedness in Everyday Rituals. In Body Talk and Cultural Identity in the African World, ed. A. Agwuele, 111–132. Bristol: Equinox.
Silverstein, B.L., B. Peterson Purdue, and E. Kelly. 1986. The Role of Mass Media in Promoting a Thin Standard of Bodily Attractiveness for Women. Sex Roles 14 (9/10): 519–532.
Sommer, R. 1959. Studies in Personal Space. Sociometry (22): 247–260.
Spivak, G.C. 1988. Can the Subaltern Speak? In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, ed. C. Nelson and L. Grossberg, 271–313. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Tannen, D. 1994. Gender and Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wasike, J.C. 2013. Gender Relations in Manguliechi’s Babukusu After-Burial Oratory Performance (Khuswala Kumuse). Unpublished PhD dissertation. Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Barasa, M., Agwuele, A. (2021). A Repertoire of Bukusu Nonverbal Communicative System: Some Gender Differences. In: Akinyemi, A., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Oral Traditions and Folklore. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55517-7_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55517-7_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-55516-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-55517-7
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)