I don’t think any of what I’m about to say properly qualifies as language, but there are lots of cases where information is communicated by the manipulation of physical objects. The only examples I can think of require either a pre-determined agreement (verbal, written, or maybe a social norm) or shared context/knowledge. With a pre-arranged encoding scheme any message could be written out using some number of objects (e.g., reading lit and unlit candles in a window as the binary representation of ASCII characters, though this quickly needs a lot of candles).
What I came up with in about ten minutes, loosely categorized by use case:
War and Espionage
From Paul Revere’s Ride: “One if by land, two if by sea” to signal British troop movements (possibly apocryphal now that I think about it)
Also from American Revolutionary war history: the Culper spy ring used petticoats hung on clotheslines as signals (I’m not sure if they were interpreted as letters or words or just preset messages like “meet at the farmhouse at sundown”).
Mail
Boxes/bags left on a doorstep to say “this is for you”
A raised flag on a mailbox to say “please take my mail”
Business
Closing the door, turning off lights, etc. at a business to signal “we are in the process of closing/already closed”
IDK where I read this from, but IIRC during some era Italian(?) courtesans/prostitutes would replace white flowers outside their residences with red ones to indicate they were taking their monthly time off
Interpersonal relationships
Accepting a gift to show you accept an apology
Hugging/kissing your current boyfriend’s when your ex walks into the party to say “no, we are not getting back together”
Packing your belongings up and leaving your ring on the kitchen table to say “I want a divorce”
I don’t think any of what I’m about to say properly qualifies as language, but there are lots of cases where information is communicated by the manipulation of physical objects. The only examples I can think of require either a pre-determined agreement (verbal, written, or maybe a social norm) or shared context/knowledge. With a pre-arranged encoding scheme any message could be written out using some number of objects (e.g., reading lit and unlit candles in a window as the binary representation of ASCII characters, though this quickly needs a lot of candles).
What I came up with in about ten minutes, loosely categorized by use case:
War and Espionage
From Paul Revere’s Ride: “One if by land, two if by sea” to signal British troop movements (possibly apocryphal now that I think about it)
Also from American Revolutionary war history: the Culper spy ring used petticoats hung on clotheslines as signals (I’m not sure if they were interpreted as letters or words or just preset messages like “meet at the farmhouse at sundown”).
Mail
Boxes/bags left on a doorstep to say “this is for you”
A raised flag on a mailbox to say “please take my mail”
Business
Closing the door, turning off lights, etc. at a business to signal “we are in the process of closing/already closed”
IDK where I read this from, but IIRC during some era Italian(?) courtesans/prostitutes would replace white flowers outside their residences with red ones to indicate they were taking their monthly time off
Interpersonal relationships
Accepting a gift to show you accept an apology
Hugging/kissing your current boyfriend’s when your ex walks into the party to say “no, we are not getting back together”
Packing your belongings up and leaving your ring on the kitchen table to say “I want a divorce”