Life and ideas of Edward T.
Hall
Prasova Elina
Biography. Major events
in life of E.T. Hall
1914 Born in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis
1918-32 Grew up in New Mexico
1933-37 Worked on the Navajo and Hopi reservations in the U.S.
Southwest
1936 Earned B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Denver
1938 Earned M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Arizona
1942 Earned Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University
1942-45 Served in WWII, commanding an African American
regiment in Europe and the Philippines
1946 Post-doctoral study in Sociology/Cultural Anthropology at
Columbia University; conducted research on the U.S. military
government administration of Turuk
1946-48 Chairman, Department of Anthropology, University of
Denver; studied race relations in Denver
1948-50 Taught at Bennington College in Vermont, with Erich
Fromm
1950-55 Director of the Point IV Training Program at the Foreign
Service Institute, Washington, D.C.
1952-56 A iliated with the Washington School of Psychiatry,
Washington, D.C.
1955 Publication of "The Anthropology of Manners" in the Scienti ic
American
1959 Publication of The Silent Language 1960-63 A iliated (again)
with the Washington School of Psychiatry
1963-67 Professor of Anthropology, Illinois Institute of Technology,
Chicago; conducted NIMH- funded research on proxemics and
interethnic encounters
1966 Publication of The Hidden Dimension
1967-77 Professor of Anthropology, Northwestern University, until his
retirement in 1977; conducted further NIMH funded research on
proxemics and interethnic encounters
1976 Participated in the Conference on Intercultural Communication,
International Christian University, Tokyo 1976 Publication of Beyond
Culture
1977 Presented a paper at the International Communication
Association Conference, Berlin (Hall, 1978)
1977-2009 in retirement in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Occasional
lectures at SIETAR conferences and the Summer Institute of
Intercultural Communication; teaching at the University of New
Mexico (1997 and 1999).
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In luences
• Cultural Anthropology
• Linguistics
• Ethology
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Key concepts
• Context: High-Context versus
Low-Context Cultures
• Proxemics
• Chronemics
Conclusions
• Nonverbal communication, de ined (by Hall)
as communication that does not involve the
exchange of words. Hall, Trager, and
Birdwhistell created the empirical study of
various types of nonverbal communication
(proxemics, chronemics, and kinesics),
setting forth the leads that were followed up
by later generations of nonverbal
communication scholars.
• The emphasis, especially in nonverbal
communication, was on the out-of-
awareness level of information-exchange.
• The approach to intercultural
communication accepted cultural
di erences and was nonjudgemental,
re lecting a perspective from
anthropological research and training.
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Thank you for your attention!
