ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to convince the reader of the utter artificiality of the supposed opposition between culture and biology. It is an edited version of the papers presented at the conference "Nonverbal Communication and the Genesis of Culture", held at Zentrum fur interdisziplinäre Forschung (ZiF) in March 1992. The book conveys some of the interdisciplinary spirit and many individual "aha!" experiences of that conference. It is devoted to human universals, a long-standing issue of contention in the nature-nurture debate and obviously of central importance to nonverbal communication. The book focuses on developmental aspects of nonverbal behavior, and on evolutionary ones. Both parts also emphasize the central importance of the social and cultural context. The book addresses the relationship between nonverbal communication and culture from a variety of perspectives and suggests how social scientific theorizing may benefit from recent insights in nonverbal research.
