Rebooting Raymond Birdwhistell

Abstract

ABSTRACT The work of Raymond Birdwhistell is generally appreciated only within the communication subfield known as ‘nonverbal’ communication. The current paper reviews key elements of Birdwhistell’s larger theory of human communication and demonstrates its potential applicability to the wider academic field of Communication Studies. Viewed within this larger context, Birdwhistell’s true subject emerges. In this way, readers of the current paper may appreciate the focus of his work was not delimited to one specialised, distilled component of communication but, rather, was directed towards modelling and understanding human communication sui generis. Repackaging the conceptual thrust of Birdwhistell permits fresh exploration of ongoing and unresolved problems in the paradigm of Communication Studies. The paper indicates how select elements of Birdwhistell’s work may sharpen both the basic conceptual focus – and practical appreciation – of human Communication as a unique object of study and posits the possible strengthening of a unique Communication perspective.