ABSTRACT
Chapter One gives an overview of the main theoretical strands of this book. I discuss research on personal autonomy in so-called hunting and gathering societies and terms used to describe this autonomy such as ‘independence’, ‘equality’, and ‘egalitarianism’. I introduce anthropological discussions on personhood and self, and give a brief introduction to anthropological studies of verbal and nonverbal communication and literature about so-called indirect communication. Communication, I argue, is a relational phenomenon which, apart from the communicating parties and other human actors, involves the broader contexts and settings of the communicative encounter. Communication regarded as ‘joint attunement’ and an embodied practice involves the constantly moving body.
