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[[File:Us navy helicopter landing signals illustration.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Military [[aircraft marshalling|air marshallers]] use hand and body gestures to direct flight operations aboard [[aircraft carrier]]s.]]
A '''gesture''' is a form of [[non-verbal communication]] or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, [[speech]]. Gestures include movement of the [[hand]]s, [[face]], or other parts of the [[Human body|body]]. Gestures differ from physical non-verbal communication that does not communicate specific messages, such as purely [[Emotional expression|expressive]] displays, [[proxemics]], or displays of [[joint attention]].<ref name=Kendon>Kendon, Adam. (2004) ''Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83525-9</ref> Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection, often together with [[body language]] in addition to [[word]]s when they speak.
Gesture processing takes place in areas of the brain such as [[Broca's area|Broca's]] and [[Wernicke's area]]s, which are used by [[speech]] and [[sign language]].<ref name="Xu">Xu J, Gannon PJ, Emmorey K, Smith JF, Braun AR. (2009). [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2779203/pdf/pnas.0909197106.pdf Symbolic gestures and spoken language are processed by a common neural system.] Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106:20664–20669. {{doi|10.1073/pnas.0909197106}} PMID 19923436</ref> In fact, language is thought by some scholars to have evolved in ''Homo sapiens'' from an earlier system consisting of manual gestures.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Corballis|first=Michael|title=The gestural origins of language|journal=WIREs Cognitive Science|date=January–February 2010|volume=1}}</ref> The theory that language evolved from manual gestures, termed [[Origin of language#Gestural theory|Gestural Theory]], dates back to the work of 18th-century philosopher and priest [[Étienne Bonnot de Condillac|Abbé de Condillac]], and has been revived by contemporary anthropologist Gordon W. Hewes, in 1973, as part of a discussion on the [[origin of language]].<ref>Corballis, Michael. (January/February 2010). "The gestural origins of language." © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. WIREs Cogn Sci 2010 1 2–7</ref>
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Gesture has also been taken up within [[queer theory]], [[ethnic studies]] and their intersections in [[performance studies]], as a way to think about how the moving body gains social meaning. [[José Esteban Muñoz]] uses the idea of gesture to mark a kind of refusal of finitude and certainty and links gesture to his ideas of ephemera. [[José Esteban Muñoz|Muñoz]] specifically draws on the African-American dancer and [[drag queen]] performer [[Kevin Aviance]] to articulate his interest not in what queer gestures might mean, but what they might perform.<ref>Muñoz, José Esteban. ''Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity''. New York: New York University Press, 2009.
</ref> Juana María Rodríguez borrows ideas of [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] and draws on Noland and Muñoz to investigate how gesture functions in queer sexual practices as a way to rewrite gender and negotiate power relations. She also connects gesture to [[Giorgio Agamben]]'s idea of "means without ends" to think about political projects of social justice that are incomplete, partial, and legibile within culturally and socially defined spheres of meaning.
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Gestures play a central role in religious or spiritual rituals such as the [[Christianity|Christian]] [[sign of the cross]]. In [[Hinduism]] and [[Buddhism]], a ''[[mudra]]'' ([[Sanskrit]], literally "seal") is a symbolic gesture made with the hand or fingers. Each mudra has a specific meaning, playing a central role in Hindu and Buddhist [[iconography]]. An example is the Vitarka mudra, the gesture of discussion and transmission of Buddhist teaching. It is done by joining the tips of the thumb and the index together, while keeping the other fingers straight.
Gestures are learned embodied cultural practices that can function as a way to interpret ethnic, gender, and sexual identity.
==Neurology==
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==Further reading==
* ''[[John Bulwer|Bulwer, J]] (1644). Chirologia: or the Natural Language of the Hand.''
* ''[[Susan Goldin-Meadow|Goldin-Meadow, S]] (2003). Hearing gesture: How our hands help us think. Cambridge, MA: [[Harvard University Press]].
* Hoste, L. & Signer, B. (2014) "Criteria, Challenges and Opportunities for Gesture Programming Languages" In ''Proceedings of 1st International Workshop on Engineering Gestures for Multimodal Interfaces (EGMI 2014)''. Rome, Italy.
* ''[[Adam Kendon|Kendon, A]] (2004). Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]].
* ''Kita, S (2003). Pointing: Where Language, Culture and Cognition Meet. [[Taylor & Francis|Lawrence Erlbaum Associates]].
* Lippit, Akira Mizuta (2008). “Digesture: Gesture and Inscription in Experimental Cinema.” ''Migration of Gesture''. Ed. Carrie Noland and Sally Ann Ness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
* ''[[David McNeill|McNeill, D]] (2005). Gesture and Thought. Chicago: [[University of Chicago Press]].
* Muñoz, Jose Esteban (2001). “Gesture, Ephemera and Queer Feeling: Approaching Kevin Aviance.” ''Dancing Desires: Choreographing Sexualities on and off Stage''. Ed. Jane Desmond. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 423–442.
* Muñoz, José Esteban (2009). ''Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity''. New York: New York University Press.
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