Abstract

Gestures or communication with the hands have a long history and have been studied intensively in various disciplines. Giuseppe Pitrè presents a short examination of these topics in a chapter dedicated to gestures and their meanings in Sicily, which can be found in the second volume of his extensive work "Usi e Costumi, credenze e pregiudizi del popolo Siciliano", a book which was published for the first time in 1889 in Palermo. Pitrè argues that the traditions of people mirror in a condensed way their history, culture, and in general their vision of the world. Gestures can be seen as a means through which people can express their culture, history, and their whole inner world, while interacting with others and with their environment. Here, I give a short introduction into the modern semiotic theory of gestures and relate this view of gestures to the findings and observations of Pitrè.