A Dictionary of Gestures (spectator.us)

I opened the article hoping that it will be graphical dictionary of gestures. It is not.

The first dictionaries of gestures—Chirologia & Chironomia—were compiled by John Bulwer, a 17th century physician and scholar who was perhaps best known for his later work, Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform’d, or the Artificial Changeling. Historically presented, in the mad and cruel Gallantry, foolish Bravery, ridiculous Beauty, filthy Fineness, and loathesome Loveliness of most Nations, fashioning & altering their Bodies from the Mould intended by Nature. With a Vindication of the Regular Beauty and Honesty of Nature, and an Appendix of the Pedigree of the English Gallant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bulwer#Manuscripts_and_ot...

This post made me think of the seven gestures that make you look like an intellectual:

https://www.wired.com/2014/01/use-hand-gestures-look-like-re...

"You may have read about this during the Iraq war. A group of local people approach an American position. A US soldier holds out his hand at arm’s length, palm outwards, in the traditional gesture of ‘halt’. The locals keep on coming. He repeats the gesture. They keep advancing. So he opens fire. The locals turn out to be civilians, not fighters. The Americans evidently didn’t know that this gesture, throughout the Middle East, is a friendly greeting. It means ‘hi’ rather than ‘halt’."

I call bullshit on this fable. People are not idiots even in the "Middle East". It has semi-racial undertones.

They also don't understand a gun pointed at them? They don't get warning shots? They are too stupid to know the Americas don't speak their language and are a different culture?

This is a common traveling myth, that overseas people will take offence becasue you use the wrong sign in their culture, like they are too stupid to know you are different?

Here's a blog that seems to agree - https://savageminds.org/2008/09/28/how-not-to-signal-stop/