Before we exchange stories, we exchange signals. Before shared meaning, we negotiate whether a shared world is possible.
On a train in Peru, a Japanese signal was perceived by an Indian observer outside its original cultural setting. Shared language was not the first condition of the encounter. Attention, gesture, available distance, and the decision to allow the interaction to continue came first.
No single cue carried the entire meaning. The relation depended on a field: body, face, movement, timing, familiarity, vulnerability, available distance, and the safety of the surrounding environment.
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