Hall, Edward Twitchell, Jr (1914– )

US cultural anthropologist. He developed theories of nonverbal communication which he popularized in Silent Language (1959). Other important works incude Beyond Culture (1966) and The Dance of Life (1983). With his wife, he operated a consultancy that interpreted foreign cultures for business and government officials by drawing on his knowledge of gestures, body movement, and other types of nonverbal ‘languages’.

Hall was born in Webster Groves, Missouri. He was educated at the University of Denver and Columbia University, gaining his PhD in 1940, and began studying communications among the Hopi and Navajo peoples in the 1930s. After army service during World War II, he taught at Bennington University, Illinois Tech, and Northwestern University.