The Silent Grammar of Contagion: A Semiotic and Proxemic Analysis of Non-Verbal Health Communication in Sri Lankan Indigenous Epidemic Management

In the past, the natives of Ceylon relied on natural and simple resources available at hand in their surroundings, villages, forests, streams and other places to fulfill their needs. During public health crises, the transmission of risk information is traditionally studied through verbal and textual mass media channels. However, rural societies with limited literacy or media infrastructure historically relied on highly sophisticated, non-verbal communication networks to manage infectious diseases. This paper analyzed the traditional epidemiological practices of rural Sri Lanka as a complex ecosystem of non-verbal communication. Typically, risk information communication during health crises is studied through oral and written media channels. However, rural societies with limited literacy or media infrastructure have historically used highly sophisticated nonverbal communication networks to manage infectious diseases. The aim of this research was to study the use of traditional disease control methods in rural societies in Sri Lanka as a complex environment for a non-verbal communication system. The research question addressed in this study is how rural non-verbal communication methods used as traditional health practices have adapted to the current society with the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on Charles Sanders Peirce's triadic theory of semiotics and Edward T. Hall's theory of proxemics, this study examines how plant objects (objectology), spatial arrangements (proxemics), and performance rituals function as silent risk-signaling systems. The primary sources included the general public who uses local knowledge systems, while the secondary sources consisted of literature such as books and research articles. The analysis reveals that rural non-verbal communication had been effectively used in Sri Lankan households during the COVID pandemic for purposes such as disease prevention, disease transmission prevention, disinfection, and patient communication. Visual symbols such as coconut leaves (gok kola ran) or cohosh leaves (kohomba) placed near the entrance of houses (kadulla) are considered to have functioned as local visual advertising systems that enforced quarantine restrictions without verbal or written messages. Furthermore, this research maps the structural and spatial similarities between modern biomedical non-verbal signals such as quarantine signs, roadblocks, etc. and traditional local symbols. Finally, this study concludes that understanding these deeply rooted nonverbal cultural codes in rural societies is essential for designing culturally appropriate and practical current health communication strategies.

Non-Verbal Communication, Semiotics, Proxemics

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