Gesture communication is considered to be one of the major and leading means of non-verbal communication. As well as mimic and tactile communication it is one of the important elements of non-verbal process of communication and system of values for any culture (1).
All the gestures can be divided into two large groups – emotional representations and the dialogue signals. The first are the direct reflections of the inner state of the doer of the action. They are believed to be universal for all the human cultures (a smile, laughter, crying, anger etc.) and subcultures (2). However, the culture dictates some certain rules of gesture communication, the rules of showing emotions that depend on the social context. These rules vary from one culture to another so much that they modify the universal representations. In the meantime the cultures differ a lot on the level of emotional manifestation while communicating, particularly on the level of gesture intensity. For example, the Scandinavians and the Norwegians will have the most minimal level of such intensity but the Spanish, the Italians and the Greeks will demonstrate its ultimate level.
Such scientists as E. Mackdaniel and A. Anderson state that the dependence between the size of personal space, the frequency of the tactile contacts and the intensity of gestures has a rather complex nature. Thus, for example, the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans belong to the contact cultures (the distance between the partners while communicating is low) but the frequency of the tactile contacts and the intensity of gestures is very low. On the other hand, for example, the Arabic culture demonstrates traditional expectations. This is a contact culture (the distance between the partners while communicating is the most minimal one), the level of gestures and tactile contacts during the process of communication is exceptionally high.
In contrast to emotional representations the dialogue signals are taught and they vary from culture to culture. The majority of them are made with the help of hand gestures. For example, a sit-down gesture, an order gesture, a pushing aside gesture though mimics and tactile contacts can also significantly help the process of communication.