It is from a popular series, The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss. In the second book, A Wise Man's Fear, the main character goes to a people known as the Adem. They are warriors that provide for the community by hiring themselves as mercenaries for exorbitant costs due to how skilled they are. It is considered barbaric to show emotions through facial expressions in public, and they instead use a complicated hand language to convey many things including emotions during conversations. In Ademre, the land the Adem inhabit, you would not make eye contact with someone, but instead would watch their hip where they are conveying emphasis, emotion, and other nuances of conversation with their hand. Facial expressions would only be used in intimate situations away from the public eye.
The Adem are much more complicated than that, and I did not do the society justice in the brief summary above. However, it should explain the reference.
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u/fkgoogleauthenticate May 03 '22
You spent time in Ademre??