barriomulas.com - Review of "The Hidden Dimension" by Edward T. Hall

By reading "Beyond Culture" I quickly became a fan of Anthropologist Edward T. Hall. Hall tends to tackle rarely studies aspects of foreign culture (such as concepts of time and space) and presents them in a very intriguing way. In "Hidden Dimension", Hall concentrates more on the intangible than the tangible. Using many animals as an example, Hall identifies a sort of invisible barrier between species of animals, whereas say a lizard, would always maintain a distance of a few feet between itself and a human being. Birds sitting on a telephone line also have an identically distance between them. Even people sitting on benches in a train station maintain a similar distance between each other. The urinal in a mens room is another perfect example. Lions on the other hand maintain a certain distance from human beings but once we pass a certain line, they move in to strike. "Hidden dimensions" are shared by all species from rats to walruses and even human beings.

When this "dimension" is violated - as depicted in a number of experiments where deers and rats were crowded into a space small enough to create such conditions - the animals begin to grow hostile, violent towards each other, and begin to die off due to diseases and stress. Hall questions whether or not man is subject to these same effects, as apparent by the plague, stress, and violence that haunts our crowded cities.

Great book. I would suggest any fan of anthropology to check it out.