3Keio Communication Review No. 24, 2002Edward T. Hall and The History ofIntercultural Communication:The United States and Japanby Everett M. ROGERSWilliam B. HARTYoshitaka MIIKEAbstractHere we trace the role of anthropologist Edward T. Hall in founding thescholarly field of intercultural communication during the 1951-1955 period whenhe was at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of States. Thescholarly field of intercultural communication was then mainly advanced byuniversity-based scholars of communication in the United States and Japan, andin other countries. The development of intercultural communication in the U.S.and Japan is analyzed here.The Founding Role of Edward T. HallThis essay explores (1) the development of the original paradigm forintercultural communication, and (2) how this paradigm was followed by scholarsin the United States and in Japan. The term “intercultural communication” wasused in Edward T. Hall’s (1959) influential book, The Silent Language, andHall is generally acknowledged to be the founder of the field (Leeds-Hurwitz,1990; Rogers and Steinfatt, 1999). Hall was born in St. Louis, but grew up mainlyin the American Southwest. As a young man in the 1930s, Hall worked for theU.S. Indian Service, building roads and dams with construction crews of Hopisand Navajos (Hall, 1992, 1994). He earned a Ph.D. in anthropology in 1942 atColumbia University, then one of the most important centers in anthropologicalstudy. During World War II Hall served as an officer with an African Americanregiment in Europe and in the Pacific (Hall, 1947).After the War, Hall returned to Columbia University for post-doctoral studyin cultural anthropology (somewhat of a career shift from his previous specialty* Everett M. ROGERS is Regents’ Professor, Department of Communication and Journalism,University of New Mexico. William B. HART is Assistant Professor, Department ofCommunication and Theatre Arts, Old Dominion University. Yoshitaka MIIKE is a doctoralstudent in the Department of Communication ...