Relationship to space

There is a body language that is understood in all countries of the world. The movements of the little vagabond Charlie Chaplin in silent films were understandable all over the world and caused laughter in all countries, including the technically backward countries of Africa.
However, culture is still the main factor determining the content of body language and especially the attitude to the territory. Dr. Hall paid special attention to the importance of proxemics in various cultures. For example, in Japan, crowding people is a sign of warm and pleasant intimacy. Hall notes that in some situations, people prefer to be as close as possible to each other.
In Japanese, there is no word for "solitude". This does not mean that the Japanese have no idea what “solitude” is. For the Japanese, the concept of “solitude” is associated only with a personal home. He views this area as his own and indignantly rejects the invasion of it. This need for personal space does not contradict, and even in a strange way, is combined with the desire to be intimate with other people.
Dr. Hall sees this as a manifestation of the Japanese attitude to space. For people from Western countries, space is the distance between objects. For us, the space is empty. The Japanese perceive space, its shape and organization, as tangible objects. This is manifested not only in the way they create flower arrangements or decorate the interior, but also in the breakdown of gardens and parks, where the individual elements of space are harmoniously combined into one whole.
Like the Japanese, the Arabs tend to be as close as possible to each other. But, if the Arabs are always crowded in public, there are too many voids inside the Arab houses. Arab houses are large and empty, and the people inside them are crowded in a small space. Usually there are no partitions between rooms, because despite the desire to have as much space as possible at their disposal, Arabs do not like to be alone and are crowded together in their spacious houses.
There is a fundamental difference between Arab and Japanese crowding. An Arab loves to touch his companion, to touch and smell him. If you do not want to breathe on your friend, it means that you are ashamed of him.
Although the Japanese are trying to be closer to other people, they retain a certain formality and elevation. They manage to touch each other and at the same time maintain rigid boundaries around them. An Arab throws these boundaries away.
In addition to this love of crowding in the culture of the Arab world, a lot of hustle and sharing of a single space that irritates Americans so much.
For Americans, there are borders in a public place. When he stands in line, it seems to him that his place is indestructible. The Arab does not recognize privacy in a public place and, if he can get into the line, he believes that he has the right to do so.
Just as the Japanese lack of a special word for “privacy” expresses their attitude towards other people, the Arabs' lack of a special word for “rape” to a certain extent shows their attitude to the body. For an American, the body is sacred. For an Arab who does not need to be pushed, shoving a man on the street and even pinching a woman, aggression against the body is not such a terrible crime. However, violence against the person, committed as an insult, is a serious problem for the Arab.
At the same time, as Hall emphasizes, an Arab, no matter how close he wants to be to his neighbors, from time to time seeks to be alone. In order to remain alone, he cuts the lines of communication. He withdraws into himself, and this care is respected by those around him. His departure to himself expresses in body language the thought: “I need privacy. In spite of the fact that I am physically with you, I touch you and live with you, I must retire to my shell. ”
If an American encounters such withdrawal, he will consider such behavior insulting. Care in yourself will be interpreted in body language as a reluctance to communicate or break a relationship. Such behavior will be regarded as an insult.
When two Arabs talk to each other, they look intensely into each other’s eyes. In American culture, it is not customary for men to look into each other’s eyes with such intensity. A typical American reaction to such an Arab view is the following: “I really didn’t like the way he looked into my eyes. It seemed that he wanted something personal or even intimate. ”