# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/ray-birdwhistell
# Generated: 2026-08-15T01:16:57.480Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/ray-birdwhistell"
name: "Ray Birdwhistell"
slug: "ray-birdwhistell"
description: "Ray L. Birdwhistell was an American anthropologist who founded kinesics as a field of inquiry and research. Birdwhistell coined the term kinesics, meaning \"facial expression, gestures, posture and gait, and visible arm and body movements\". He estimated that \"no more than 30 to 35 percent of the social meaning of a conversation or an interaction is carried by the words.\" Stated more broadly, he argued that \"words are not the only containers of social knowledge.\" He proposed other technical terms, including kineme, and many others less frequently used today."
tagline: "American anthropologist"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Academics"
  slug: "academics"
profileType:
  name: "Academic"
  slug: "academic"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1918-09-28"
deathDate: "1994-10-19"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           46.12
  momentum:             6.902654867256635
  historical:           8.086538666666666
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     50.00000000000001
  profileCompleteness:  55
  trendDirection:       "RISING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
  - url: "https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ray_Birdwhistell"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%89_%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%8A%D9%84"
    title: "راى بيردوايستيل"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Birdwhistell"
    title: "Ray Birdwhistell"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Birdwhistell"
    title: "Ray Birdwhistell"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Birdwhistell"
    title: "Ray Birdwhistell"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Birdwhistell"
    title: "Ray Birdwhistell"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Birdwhistell"
    title: "Ray Birdwhistell"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Birdwhistell"
    title: "Ray Birdwhistell"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%2C_%D0%A0%D1%8D%D0%B9"
    title: "Бердвистел, Рэй"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q328844"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump