Personal Space

December 4, 2007

I recently came across an article about proxemics, the study of personal space and it got me to thinking of personal space during travel. Personal space is not something that pertains only to human animals– all animals have some sense of personal space, be it while attacking or retreating or smelling or communicating. It is only in humans that our sense of space is directly involved and understood.

The issue of personal space is a fascinating concept. Who belongs where and when? Most of us don’t really recognize it on a daily basis, unless we come across an overtly large amount of close-talkers, animated gesturers, smelly people or any other such invaders of ‘personal’ space.

On the whole, throughout the course of the day, most people will obey most invisible laws regarding distance of communication, bus riding, line queuing and the like. Often times for the traveler, its Eastern counterpart will confront their largely Western notion of personal space in confusing, surprising and illuminating ways.

In North America, we have the luxury of a tremendous amount of space. Population per square kilometer here is a pittance compared to say, Japan, China or India.

Immediately a Western traveler will notice that the astounding amount of people who live in these places all have somewhere to go and lives to lead. Crowds, queues, conversations are all done in quite close contact, oftentimes devolving into surging masses of people. Life simply can’t afford the space it can in the West as in the East.

It’s amazing how fast piddly concerns like having the ‘normal’ space around us are lost in a new land. The foreigner is not the native in a foreign land. We can’t be choosy with our means and modes. Often times, the busiest most crowded modes of transportation are our lot. We dumbly line up in queues for any number of things. We go to markets. We go to busy places.

For some there is a grating aspect of such constant touching, such closed quarters. Others see it as sort of a comfort, as a humanizing experience. I tend to group myself with the latter, although it is odd how oftentimes even when ample space is available (in a waiting room, or, say a certain train station in Shenzen, China) certain zealous people will still huddle in groups together, or, say, the only other person in the station.

It’s an idea that on an individual level seems to be largely transitive as well. Oftentimes I’ve noticed those who originally hail from a country of much smaller personal space proportions will still revert to their original, closer space boundaries when in conversation or transit and vice versa for those who hail from larger personal space countries.

But personal space is a very real and very amusing phenomenon. How would our lives have been different in more crowded or less crowded spaces?