| If Americans and Latins have misunderstandings about maintaining a sociable distance, Americans and Arabs are even less compatible in their space habits. Arabs thrive on close contact. The Mediterranean Arabs belong to a touch culture and, in conversation, they literally envelop the other person. They hold his hands, look into his eyes, and they bathe him in their breath. North Americans who had lived overseas have been highly distressed by cultural differences so subtle and so basic that their effects were felt for the most part at a preconscious level. Such distress is usually referred to as culture shock. Now, we shall have a close look at how animals deal with space. Animals also react to space and in ways that are predictable for each species. For example, many have both a flight distance and a critical distance. If any creature sufficiently threatening comes within flight distance of the animal, it will run; but if the animal is cornered and the menace continues to advance until within the critical distance, the animal will attack. A lion tamer apparently manipulates a lion by knowing to a hair what the beast's critical distance is. The trainer steps across this sensitive boundary and the lion springs at him, landing on the school that stands between them. Instantly, the man backs off until he's beyond critical distance. And the animal stays where it is, no longer impelled to attack. |
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