On the Ethnohistory of Powhatan Ritual Gestures

TitleOn the Ethnohistory of Powhatan Ritual Gestures
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2010
AuthorsGuillermo Bartelt
JournalAnthropos
Volume105
Issue1
Pagination47-56
ISSN02579774
Abstract

An ethnohistory-of-communication approach is applied to examine such extra-linguistic behavior as greeting and religious gestures in seventeenth-century Powhatan. A case is made for early colonial documents as a source of data for descriptions of bodily movements. Incorporating ethological, interactional, semiotic as well as pragmatic perspectives, it is suggested that Powhatan greeting gestures are extensions of in- vocative kinesic motions.