Kinesics is a systematic study of how human beings communicate through body movement and gesture. There is nothing new about the recognition that visually oriented animals, human or otherwise, stimulate each other by facial expression, postural shifts, and formalized gesture.
From folklore to modern literature, storytellers have modified their dialogues by descriptions of body behavior. Even that most auditory medium, radio, uses a sound-effects man to support its illusions of movement. In every culture the dancer and the player have ritualized such expression. Yet the fact remains that only recently have such phenomena been subjected to systematic analysis.