The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time

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The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time

4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 · rating details · 77 ratings · 9 reviews

First published in 1983, this book studies how people are tied together and yet isolated by hidden threads of rhythm and walls of time.Time is treated as a language, organizer, and message system revealing people's feelings about each other and reflecting differences between cultures....more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published February 9th 1984 by Anchor

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Nov 11, 2012 Tristy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, native-american, scavenged

I've got mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it really shows it's age - published in 1983, it has a very dated, simplistic anthropological approach to culture and how "other" cultures differ from the "American European" culture. On the other hand, there is some really sensitive, in-depth exploration of the differences in the way different cultures view, access, talk about, and experience time. I was particularly fascinated by the author's work with Hopi and Navajo people in the 1930...more

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May 02, 2013 Taylor Ellwood rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology

In this book Hall explores how different cultures approach and integrate the concept of time into their lives. He explores in depth how the cultural differences can impact peoples interactions with each other, as well as how we can be more aware of the cultural differences as it pertains to temporal awareness. I felt that this book wasn't as dynamic as his previous works. I still got a lot out of it, but it did seem like he was rehashing a lot of his earlier work. I'd still recommend it, because...more

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Oct 11, 2008 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthropology

I just reread The Dance of Life, by E.T. Hall, and discovered how much it has influenced my thinking. I have no idea why or where I bought it at some point in the 1990s, other than it must have looked interesting.

At times I describe myself as a "rhythm junkie." If I'm at an exercise class with music, I move to the beat, and it drives me nuts on the rare occasions when teachers don't. If there's music in a store, I have a hard time not moving to it. I was in a drum and bugle corps in high school...more I just reread The Dance of Life, by E.T. Hall, and discovered how much it has influenced my thinking. I have no idea why or where I bought it at some point in the 1990s, other than it must have looked interesting.

At times I describe myself as a "rhythm junkie." If I'm at an exercise class with music, I move to the beat, and it drives me nuts on the rare occasions when teachers don't. If there's music in a store, I have a hard time not moving to it. I was in a drum and bugle corps in high school -- we're talking decades ago -- and still drum out the cadences. I love to watch my son play the trombone. He starts with foot tapping and is soon moving his entire body. He's always had good rhythm and is what a lot of people describe as a natural athlete.

ANYWAY -- Hall suggests that there's a fundamental pulse that unites all living creatures on the earth. Individuals and cultures and places also have their own beat(s). I work, for instance, on a campus that is agriculturally oriented, and the pace there is remarkably slower -- not in a bad way, less frenetic -- than the main campus one mile to the west. I've told people facetiously that you can feel the earth's pulse while you walk across East Campus. Maybe I meant it.

The Dance of Life uses cultural differences to get at what may be metaphysical observations.

Hall draws from his own and others' experiences working with indigenous cultures. A key point is that American/Europeans (AKA we white folk) view music (and time) as originating externally, delivered via inspired composers or lucky bands that had a big break. In contrast, certain African and American Indian cultures view music as originating internally. He also mentions that Africans tend to be aware of a much broader spectrum of communication than American/Europeans, who overemphasize words.

(My experience working with recent African immigrants included the sense that my grasp of body language was very limited -- that I really did not know how to greet people properly, by their standards, even after I learned more -- and that there were some fundamentally very different rhythms and harmonies within the African community that felt like big missing pieces in my experience so far in this lifetime of being human. I'm not idealizing other cultures for their own sake, but really appreciated the vitality that sprung up at the borders where the cultures met.)

Hall also describes the phenomenon of synchronicity, and links it to Jung's collective unconscious. I think of it as dropping down into a layer that's closer to The Source, where patterns are a little clearer and entropy has had less effect. Apparently non-random timing is one of the first signs of being in sync with Something, but thought content is part of it, too. A lot of people who know me also know about my "shared field" theory, this idea that we essentially log into common psychic space (cyberspace is good metaphoric training), where people seemingly independently have the same idea at the same time. I often really can't tell whether someone is picking up my thoughts or vice versa, but it's clear that we're tuned into the same wavelength. I can't explain it but rhythm seems to be the underlying medium for transmitting thought, emotion and intent.

If anyone knows of anyone who is following up on Hall's work, I would love to hear about it. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to find the common pulse that connects us all.(less)

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Jul 29, 2011 Linda Sunderland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthropology

Although a bit simplistic in its analysis of how different cultures utilize time for organization and communication, Hall's book does offer food for thought especially in a global world where the interaction between different cultures is frequent and needs to be understood.

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Feb 01, 2009 Elizabeth marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: many-copies-of-title, first-edition

first edition
with dustjacket
adequate condition for book, dust jacket is ragged

books by this author:
The Silent Language (1959)
The Hidden Dimension (1969)
Beyond Culture (1976)
The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time (1983)
Handbook for Proxemic Research
Hidden Differences: Doing Business with the Japanese
An Anthropology of Everyday Life: An Autobiography (1992, Doubleday, New York)
Understanding Cultural Differences - Germans, French and Americans (1993, Yarmouth, Maine)
West of the Thir...more

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Feb 06, 2009 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

The first 2/3rds of the book compare cultures through a lens of time. Hall's anecdotal narrative comparing Hopi and Navajo concepts of time to American concepts of time is the most interesting of this first part, due to his extensive time spent working among Native Americans. The best part of book starts with the chapter "The Dance of Life," where Hall discusses interpersonal synchrony and William Condon's concept of entrainment and the organizing function of kinesic rhythm as observed in langua...more

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Jan 21, 2008 Elinore Koenigsfeld rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm re-reading this now--ususual for me--there's so much in it about cultural differences and concepts--takes you "out of the box" of our own way of thinking, and gives insights into Spanish, American Indian, Japanese, etc.--concepts and mentality.
Living in Israel, one is constantly running into conflicts and misunderstandings because of cultural differences.
This book goes deeply into different ways of living and what it means.....
elinore

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Aug 21, 2007 Randy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Actually anthropology. Makes an arguments for 9 different kinds of time: Biological time, personal time, physical time, metaphysical time, micro time, sync time, sacred time, profane time, and meta time. Read it to find out what the hell he's talking about.

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Mar 01, 2008 Liesl Kruse rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: business

This book is phenomenal, but consider that you'll be reading a textbook.

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Apr 22, 2013 pjreads ♫ rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: thought-provoking, non-fiction, best-re-reads

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Shelves: psychology

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Shelves: owned-books

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About Edward T. Hall

Born in Webster Groves, Missouri, Hall taught at the University of Denver, Colorado, Bennington College in Vermont, Harvard Business School, Illinois Institute of Technology, Northwestern University in Illinois and others. The foundation for his lifelong research on cultural perceptions of space was laid during World War II when he served in the U.S. Army in Europe and the Philippines.

From 1933 th...more Born in Webster Groves, Missouri, Hall taught at the University of Denver, Colorado, Bennington College in Vermont, Harvard Business School, Illinois Institute of Technology, Northwestern University in Illinois and others. The foundation for his lifelong research on cultural perceptions of space was laid during World War II when he served in the U.S. Army in Europe and the Philippines.

From 1933 through 1937, Hall lived and worked with the Navajo and the Hopi on native American reservations in northwestern Arizona, the subject of his autobiographical West of the Thirties. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1942 and continued with field work and direct experience throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. During the 1950s he worked for the United States State Department, at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), teaching inter-cultural communications skills to foreign service personnel, developed the concept of "High context culture" and "low context culture", and wrote several popular practical books on dealing with cross-cultural issues. He is considered a founding father of intercultural communication as an academic area of study.

Hall first created the concepts of proxemics, polychronic and monochronic time, high and low context culture. In his book, The Hidden Dimension, he describes the culturally specific temporal and spatial dimensions that surround each of us, such as the physical distances people keep each other in different contexts.

In The Silent Language (1959), Hall coined the term polychronic to describe the ability to attend to multiple events simultaneously, as opposed to "monochronic" individuals and cultures who tend to handle events sequentially.

In 1976, he released his third book, Beyond Culture, which is notable for having developed the idea of extension transference; that is, that humanity's rate of evolution has and does increase as a consequence of its creations, that we evolve as much through our "extensions" as through our biology. However, with extensions such as the wheel, cultural values, and warfare being technology based, they are capable of much faster adaptation than genetics.

Robert Shuter, a well-known intercultural and cross-cultural communication researcher, commented: "Edward Hall's research reflects the regimen and passion of an anthropologist: a deep regard for culture explored principally by descriptive, qualitative methods.... The challenge for intercultural communication... is to develop a research direction and teaching agenda that returns culture to preeminence and reflects the roots of the field as represented in Edward Hall's early research."

He died at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 20, 2009.(less)

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West of the Thirties: Discoveries Among the Navajo and Hopi

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