Hidden Dimensions-Sharmaine Dais

For this assignment I decided to read and review the book The Hidden Dimension by Edward Hall. "The central theme of the book is social and personal space and man's perception of it" (Hall 1). The book discusses how humans use space according to time and place.
In the second chapter of the book, Hall talks about the distance regulation in animals. He says "by restricting our observations to the way animals handle space, it is possible to learn an amazing amount that is translatable to human terms (Hall 7). When it comes to freedom, Humans feel that animals are free versus humans who are imprisoned by society.
Hall also talks about the differences between eastern and western cultures. In Japanese culture, centralized spaces are positive versus in western culture it is negative (Hall 140). In Japanese culture, the fireplace (hibachi) is in the center of the room and all the family members herd together there. In western culture being in the middle or in the spot light have negative connotations. Another example of this difference is with housing. In Japanese culture walls are semi fixed. To westerners they are confinements and fixed. Japanese people often center their furniture while westerners do not. This relates to other things we have read about space and what is concerned crowding.
When it comes to the theme of public versus private spheres and behaviors, the Arab world is used to depict this. Hall talks about his experience sitting in a hotel lobby on pages 144 and 145. He says that "I seated myself in a solitary chair outside the normal stream of traffic. In such a setting most Americans follow a rule...as soon as a person stops or is seated in a public space, there balloons around him a small sphere of privacy which is considered inviolate (Hall 145). Hall explains that after he sat down, a man of Arab descent sat right next to him, although it was not crowded, which made him feel extremely uncomfortable. This shows the difference that people have when in comes to privacy. How can you expect privacy in a public setting. This was a really interesting point that Hall made.
I think the way that Hall presented his arguments, were very effective. It was a very easy read (don't be fooled by the boring look) and actually the book turned out to be very interesting.