Ray Birdwhistell founded kinesics, the study of body language and non-verbal communication through gestures, postures, eye contact and facial expressions. He observed that certain movements serve as forms of communication without words and can differ between cultures or religions. Kinesics examines emblems, illustrators, affect displays, regulators and adaptors to understand the meanings behind physical behaviors. Birdwhistell passed away in 1994 from liver cancer.