in
[the Eskimo, Bushmen, and Legcross video clips can be seen]
The Eskimo, Bushman, and Nursery School clips were made on film at 24 frames per second. The Leg-cross clip was made at 16 frames per second. The videodisk, like all videotape, uses a standard 30 frames per second. For most viewing purposes the transfer from film to videodisc is made by repeating every third frame of the 24 frame original and doubling each frame of the 16 fps film. This is visually satisfactory for normal speed viewing but it creates continuity problems for slow or frame-by-frame viewing.
For this reason I arranged for the film-to-videodisc transfer to be made frame-for-frame for the Eskimo and Bushman clips. This means that at normal videodisc playing speed, they will be visually speeded up. At slow or frame-byframe rates, however, the continuity will not be interrupted by doubled frames.
The Leg-cross clip appears on the disc twice. The first time (1784-3113) each frame is doubled so that the clip will appear at almost its original speed. If this transfer is viewed frame-by-frame, however, most frames will have movement "jitter" in them (due to splitting the "field" of each frame). The second transfer (32003905) is frame-for-frame. If played at normal videodisc speed it will appear at double speed. If played at half-speed it will appear normal. If your videodisc player has a half-speed setting, you can ignore the first transfer.
The Nursery School clips are transferred with the occasional frame doubling and the split "field" so that single frames will usually have some "jitter." Since it is more important to be able to see this film "normally" than to examine it in minute detail, I settled for the lesser of two evils.
Although there is an excellent sound record for the Bushman clip I have not included it. No player will allow sound at other than normal speed and since the frames were not "normalized" to accomodate the faster frame rate, the sound would have been wildly unrelated to the action.
Although I have reported on these data in a variety of published papers (which I will cite below), I use these clips (Eskimo, Bushman, Leg Cross, and Nursery School) in teaching and my text here describes the clips as I use them as teaching materials. I use them for two purposes. (1) Each of the clips makes its own point about human communication (or human relations) and (2) I use the sequence to show the multi-level construction of interpersonal behavior. I will discuss each clip in detail, but first the larger matter of the construction.
The construction-of-behavior sequence.
In the Eskimo clip I show that all three people (like musicians playing a trio) move in relation to a commonly-shared underlying beat or rhythm. All human behavior is emitted in small linked packages paced or driven by fixed "brainwave" frequencies (as radio or TV broadcasts ride on fixed carrier waves). When people come together "in communication," the rhythms become shared. This rhythm or intermittancy is the minimal (biological) unit, a temporal one, on which behavior is constructed.
In the Bushman clip the interwoven gestures are (temporally) compounds of these units. When these gestures are combined into larger "syntactic" units, the underlying shared rhythm allows two or more interactants to co-construct larger units (as a shared rhythm allows musicians to playa "phrase" together).
In the leg-cross clip the behaviors of three people are organized into a familiar social unit (leg-cross) with a socially constructed "meaning" or interpretation. But when the behaviors of the three interactants are examined in terms of their temporal organization, a different "interpretation" is required.
In the nursery school film a "commonsense" observation suggests that the teacher "discriminates" against a black child. This is a still higher-level social construction. And again, when the behaviors are examined as more complex interpersonal patterns, the perceived "discrimination" can be seen as specific, learned patterns of social behavior which the teacher and black child have learned differently.
By presenting the clips in this sequence I hope to show that all individual and interpersonal behavior is constructed or organized (as language is organized) by combining units on one level of organization into progressively more complex units (e.g. sounds into syllables into words into sentences, etc.) and that the minimal temporal unit, the rhythm, is the underlying shared basis that allows for conjoint participation in constructing social (communication) behavior (as the sharing of the Itrules" of ping-pong or language allows two people to conjointly "construct" a ping-pong game or a conversation).
Since the most basic unit of behavior or interaction is temporal (as the most basic element of music is rhythm), the analysis and description of behavior as pattern (implying redundancy and meaning) can be carried out in terms of temporally marked segments--the underlying structural skeleton.
This clip is from footage collected by Asen Balicki's project to make films of the earlier ways of life of the Netsilik Eskimo at Pelly Bay on Hudson bay. In this clip a seal has been pulled from a blow-hole, dragged across the ice, and is being skinned by the crouching man on the right. The other two people are "doing nothing." The sequence is "staged" and the clip is one complete photographer's "take."
After showing this a couple of times, forward and backward, I begin at about frame 39-40 (the man in the center has his hand at his head) and count single frames to show that from the time the arm starts to move, it takes about ten frames for it to come down to his side (49-50), it remains down about ten frames until it starts to move up to the stick (59), another ten frames for it to reach the stick (69-70) whereupon the other hand starts to move to his head for ten frames, moves around his hair for two units (20 frames). At about 97-98 the person (a woman?) seated at the left begins to turn her head and at about 107-108 the man at the right begins to rise up, settles back/down, turns to the left, the center man's hand starts down at about 134-135, then both men synchronously turn their heads in opposite directions.
I do this 10-frame counting only to show that there is a regularity in the interval between onsets (or changes) of movement and that all three people's movements of arms, heads, bodies fall on the common rhythm implied by the 10-frame interval.
This rhythm originates in the brain and underlies motor impulsing. It is not otherwise related to the "content" or purpose of behavior. Therefore, in looking for this rhythm in visible behavior there are a number of caveats to keep in mind:
If one were to try to demonstrate the rhythm underlying music by looking microscopically at intervals, every note would appear to be slightly off-beat. (Like the tightrope walker who, seen microscopically. is always "off balance" but who is, nonetheless, "on balance.") Thus it is necessary to stand back from counting intervals as 10-frame units and count the rhythm of the larger whole.
To show the rhythm more easily (and convincingly), begin at about frame 40 (going at half or quarter speed) and count (or tap):
ONE ....when the hand reaches "down" (at 49-50). Stays down until ..
TWO ....when it starts up (59).
THREE .. as it the reaches the stick and the other hand starts up (69-70).
FOUR ...as the other hand reaches the head (about 79),
FIVE ... as it is moving around the head/hair (about 89),
SIX ....when the women's head starts to turn (97-98).
SEVEN .. as the man on the right begins to rise (107-108).
This is like counting or tapping to music. Like performed music it is not metronomically mechanical but when one gets into the rhythm, one can tap (or count) without losing the beat. Once you get the hang of it, you can count right through the entire clip and see that II something happens" at each count. You won't "lose the beat." The seated woman doesn't move much but you might notice that she moves a stick up and down "in time," the man in the middle shifts his weight from foot to foot, etc. The movements of the man on the right are usually twists and curves and it is very difficult to find the motor impulsing in curves.
In my experience, however, it takes only a few runs-through (at no more than half speed) to get a class to recognize the dance-like rhythmicity. When the speed is increased to its original 24 fps (possible on a film projector but not a disc player) the counting is going at about 144 beats a minute which is military march rate around the world, an even four cycles of the alpha brain rhythm, twice the rate of the heart beat at rest, etc. (The ±10 cps oscillation is found in the nervous systems of all animals down to the water flea.) Because the videodisc will play this clip at a faster-than-normal speed and is likely to overtax a class's capacity to see the beat-movement relationship, I suggest using the discplayer's half speed unless you have one of the expensive models that permit one to dial any speed. At half speed (15 fps) the rhythm will be 90 beats per minute.
John Marshall filmed the Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari (see The Harmless People by his sister, Elizabeth) in the early 1950's. Bushman enjoy participating in what we call "storytelling." Many "stories" are old and traditional, the words are fixed (as the words of a poem), they are in a somewhat archaic language and everyone knows the words and the gestures. We perceive this as telling and listening but, to the Bushmen, one man is an acclaimed "teller" and the other an acclaimed "listener." We think of conversation and other forms of talk as an exchange. In many societies (including Black churches) all interpersonal talk requires more active participation than our own smiles, head nods, etc., by listeners.
Among Bushman the "audience" (or listener), usually repeats the words and gestures as they both watch and participate in the "storytelling." (I have other film with a group participating.) Perhaps the men in this clip are more like our familiar soloist and accompanist. As you will see, their every movement is precise and storytelling requires the "listener" to participate as precisely as the accompanist in a duet.
I have studied the vocal behavior of these men (on the sound tape) exhaustively across twenty years and the related publications are cited below. The movement relationships are easy to see, grossly, in the film. But the film is a series (24 per second) of static images. The scene is sampleq by film. The recorded sound, however, can be sampled (by an analog-to-digital converter which allows it to be stored on a computer disc) at up to 4000 samples per second and then examined in great detail as graphic waveforms. In my research on talk-sound I have been concerned with relational matters involving small fractions of tenths of a second. This cannot be "heardlt by unaided ears--only by examining the technologically generated waveforms. I have not included waveform data here since it is not really "visual data,"but I have included references to this research below.
Although movement and sound are perceived differently, they are organized in a single stream of communication. In part they can be seen as interdependent, each modality depending for completion on the other, And they can also be seen in terms of redundancy in which one modality can, in part, be predicted from the other. Both modalities, however, are set in or organized in relation to the same underlying (biological) rhythm--motorically. Intonational rhythms are a cultural matter,
If one comes to this clip fresh from counting the Eskimo rhythm, it is possible to "count" straight through the Bushman clip (preferably at half speed to make it easier to see) since the same rhythm is clearly here and visible. But now my focus is on the larger gestural relationships which are organized in relation to the rhythm. There are many possible relationships to point out:
It is not difficult to find other instances of synchrony or of evidences that two men are participating in the construction of their single performance. My intended points to a class are:
The detailed analysis of the recorded vocal behavior of this first Bushman segment (sentence) and a discussion of the wider implications of the matter of underlying rhythms is in "Toward an Epidemiology of Emotion" in Emotions and Psychopathology referenced at the end.
This piece of film was made about 25 years ago as part of an observation exercise in a class concerning Field Methods taught by Margaret Mead. The class will observe (i.e. film, record, take notes, etc.) an ordinary conversation between Dr. Mead and her insurance agent. At the beginning of the clip, the class is being reminded to synchronize watches so their observation notes can be related. Then the visitor is introduced and a conversation begins.
There are numerous ways to use this clip beyond the rather simple identification of the now-familiar underlying rhythm. A "communication" course may be interested in the transition between the teacher's preparatory remarks and the introduction of the guest. There is the expected breaking of all eye contact (the man turns his head and looks into space), the reorientation of chairs, the assumption of complementary (mirror) postures, Margaret Mead's "female behavior" (i .e. head to one side, stroking or fluffing her hair), etc. But I am concerned with the examination of a small, familiar, and "irrelevant" event--the Leg Cross.
My own use of the leg-cross concerns the difference between the "commonsenseU view of "what happened" and the evidence discoverable by observing the film slowly. My scenario goes like this: I show the clip (second version and running at half videodisc speed) from the beginning (frame 3200) to about frame 3400. After each time I ask class members what they saw. After a few viewings in "real time," these observations are usually offered:
A woman crossed her legs ...
.. .pulled down her skirt
Margaret Mead then pulled down her skirt
The insurance agent looked at the legs.
Margaret Mead caught him looking ...
There are also usually speculations about what the people in the scene were thinking or how someone "interpreted" what they saw. I reject those comments as "not in the visible data." The social-stereotypical view, however, is that the insurance agent looked because the woman crossed her legs and men (like to) look at women's legs. (Note that this view sees individuals and "explains" their behavior in a stimulus-response frame and with social/stereotypical assumptions about men, women, legs, etc.)
First we find the frame on which the leg first moves upward to cross (3300). Then we find the frame on which the insurance agent's head first moves to look at the legs. In the first version it is exactly the same frame (1980). If one moves back and forth between 1979 and 1980 they are clearly in synch. On the second version they appear to be either simultaneous (frame 3300) or one frame apart. One frame is too little to allow it to be a "response."
I suggest that one can see a leg cross as the behavior of an individual. But it is also a social act that "requires" the precise participation of the looker-at. The synchrony implies co-participation.
This bring up the question: how did or could he know in advance?
Then the lateral wiggle of the knees, just before the leg cross began, is remembered and we suppose that there was a (contextual) "signal" that preceeded the leg cross but it is not available in the data film. And that reflects the ethnomethodologist's reminder that the search for explanation always requires more and more "contextual" information and that the search for complete explanation never ends.
The leg cross is followed by these observed events.
Now the question arises: If he could see her coming, why did he continue to look at the legs until after he was seen?
It is. of course, not possible to know what, if anything related to these events, was in anyone's head. But if one looks for co-participation in a socialcultural pattern, and if one begins with the assumption that the man is part of this pattern by virtue of the synchrony between the leg-move and his head move to look at it, then one can ask if, as part of appropriate social pattern, the man should be seen looking. Perhaps Margaret Mead was checking on his social appropriateness while echoing the skirt pull.
One cannot "prove" anything here but I offer these speculations to a class in order to suggest:
In order to see more of the parallelism or synchrony between interactants (in this case between the leg-crosser and Margaret Mead), look very slowly or move by single-frames between frames 3325 and 3355 and watch the relationship between the movements of Margaret Mead's left hand and the visible foot of the leg crosser. The foot movements quite precisely follow the hand in direction of movement.
If one looks for the "10-frame" rhythmic unit in the Leg Cross clip, it is necessary to remember that this clip was taken at 16 frames-per-second so that the ltabout-10-frame" unit is now about 6.4 frames.
I would venture a guess: that "intimacy" could be seen as the degree to which interpersonal behaviors are synchronously (rhythmically) interlocked.
The film from which these clips were taken was made in the mid-1960's when the words "disadvantaged child" were often heard. We asked a Head Start nursery school with a "mixed" group of children to invite two "disadvantaged" and two "nondisadvantaged" children and their teacher to come to school on a Saturday morning so we could make a film to study what "disadvantage" might look like. On the day of the filming the lIadvantaged" children chosen by the nursery school were white and the "disadvantaged" children were black.
Our first research ploy was to count the number of times the most active white child and the most active black child each looked at the teacher (presumably seeking attention or notice) and how many times each got a recognition response from the teacher. I quote from a published article citing this research (Byers & Byers 1972):
In the first ten minutes (at the table) the more active black child looks or glances at the teacher thirty-five times and "catches her eye" four of those times. Each of these exchanges lasts from one to three seconds. The more active white girl looks or glances at the teacher fourteen times and "catches her eye!! and exchanges expressions eight of those times (p.23).
The nursery school clips are designed to show the contrasting patterns of "getting-it-together" behavior between teacher and white child and between teacher and black child. It is assumed, here, that a "sucessful" connection requires a fit in cultural pattern between the interactants.
In the first clip the children are seated around a table cutting and pasting and the teacher is engaged with a white child. At about frame 4692 a black child looks at the teacher (and can see that she is focused on another child) and starts to show her something, presumably vocalizing, and thrusting her "something" close to the teacher for her to see. She gets no response and turns her head on toward the back of the room.
In the second clip (5083-5782) a white child sees the teacher not engaged with another child and we can follow the sequence which ends with visible intimacy: bodies touching, heads together, eye contact, a common focus on a something (turtle?) in a glass tank. The sequence:
In the third clip a black child attempts to get close/next to the teacher when everyone moves to watch the screening of an 8 mm "single concept!l film. The clip is self-explanatory but the following are particular moments of interest:
It is only fair to point out that the white child who cut off the black child has, throughout the 30-minute film, cut off all the other children's approaches to the teacher when she was nearby.
In the last nursery school clip a black child takes a drawing to the teacher who, this time, sees her coming and is prepared to meet her by facing her and putting her hand on the child's shoulder. But there are some interesting observations:
I suggest that "getting it together"--in this case a nursery school child and teacher in any form of acknowledgement or exchange--is always a matter of cooperating in culturally learned patterns of behavior. On a bus or subway the riders "cooperate" by avoiding eye-contact, not talking to "strangers," etc. Even not "getting it together" when an occasion might permit it requires conjoint behavior. The patterns allow each person the opportunity to regulate the relational outcome. But for this to happen the interactants must share the behavioral "vocabulary" and the "grammatical" possibilities of the relevant cultural patterning.
I suggest that in these clips it is apparent that the teacher and white child indeed behave in ways that the other "understands" whereas the teacher and black children do not easily manage a pattern of "getting it together" in a complementary way. Their behavioral "languages" are not fully intelligible to each other.
While the black children do, indeed, experience "discrimination," they are "disadvantaged" by having been denied the opportunity to learn the subtle cultural patterns of the society in which they are sometimes encouraged, and want, to participate. I submit that few, if any, white teachers could, under these circumstances, be any less "discriminating" than the teacher in these clips.
I use these nursery school clips, then, to shift the emphasis of observation (and the tendency to "blame!! individuals) to the larger matter--"cultural deprivation" as a consequence of social exclusion, not the intentional behavior of individuals.
I also use all these clips to demonstrate the value of examining human relations and even "social problems" by examining recorded data to discover patterns of behavior and their interpersonal management.
These photographs and their detailed analysis appeared in The Small Conference by Margaret Mead and Paul Byers. To be useful in displaying this analysis to a group, a copy of the book in which they appeared is necessary so that the analysis and its form can be related to the photographs on this disc. In the book observations are made of behavioral relationships among the interactants, and each person is identified, both in the analysis and the photographs, by letters which appear over each person's head. The book includes text by Margaret Mead in the first half and sets of photographs and their analysis of three conferences in the second half. The first photographs are of a very small conference of businessmen. The second is the conference represented here. The third is a large Fullbright conference of scholars, half from the U. S. and half from other countries.
I have used this sequence of still photographs and the two photographs from advertisements to show:
The occasion or setting was outside a nursery school at noontime. The girl was waiting for her mother. In the first photograph (8212) she has her thumb in her mouth, her posture is "collapsed," she is not "in communication" with anyone, and she is holding the shopping bag clenched in her hand. In the second (8213) the has caught sight of me. In the third (8215--the sequence is out of order) she has raised her head, begun to smile, and to relax her grip on the shopping bag. In frame 8214 her body has moved into an approximation of an S-curve, her head is on one side with her eyes looking up from one side, her thumb has moved from being "sucked" to caressing her lip, and the shopping bag is now held limply. The two photographs clipped from advertisement show models with the head slightly down so that the eyes look sideways and up and with a thumb caressing the lips.
These photographs were taken as part of a project, initiated by the early childhood department at Sarah Lawrence College, to identify stages of social development in children as they related to readiness for nursery school and could be easily observed by teachers. I suggested that a young child's acquisition and assembly of cultural patterns could be a yardstick. In this case 4-years was designated by Freud as the time of onset of the Oedipal period and it appeared to coincide with the acquisition of a characteristic female-to-male pattern. A three year old is unable--or less likely--to do this. Unfortunately those involved in psychological research were unable to use visual (i .e. non-statistical) data in their customary research paradigms. This set of photographs and a discussion was published in The Columbia Forum and in Afterimage.
I remind students--and users of this data disc--that the behavior research displayed here begins with recorded behavioral data, examines various kinds of relationships in the data, and makes inferences (interpretations?) that the readerviewer is free to accept, reject, or re-interpret. Given the original data and an appropriate analysis tool (a laserdisc player) the reader-viewer can immediately replicate the research or look for other relationships that suggest other inferences or interpretations. Data units, then, are never abstractions but are behavioral relationships that can be pointed to in the record. Thus this kind of behavioral research is a "hard" science.
Paul Byers