History of Hand Gestures

Hand Gestures

• Hand gestures are often culturally bound and can vary from group to group, but some are very common around the world.
• Four significant gestures to focus on are the salute, the thumbs up, the high five, and the handshake.

The Salute

• The salute may have originated in the 18th century.
• The Grenadier Guards, one of the oldest regiments of the British Army, used helmets with chinstraps, making it difficult to raise the helmet when greeting someone.
• Soldiers instead touched their head with one short movement of the hand before putting it back down again at their side.

The Thumbs Up

• The thumbs-up gesture is believed to have originated in Roman times.
• Gladiators' fates were decided by the audience, who showed approval with a thumbs-up gesture.
• The emperor would confirm the decision, sparing the gladiator's life.
• However, there are no reliable historical references to thumbs going up or down in the Colosseum.

The High Five

• The high-five hand gesture is almost universally used as a greeting or celebration.
• Many attribute its origins to baseball, with two US teams claiming to have invented it in the late 1970s.
• The gesture may have a much earlier origin, similar to the 1920s Jazz Age gesture known as the "low five" or "giving skin".
• The low five involved people slapping each other's lower hands in celebration.

The Handshake

• The handshake dates back as a greeting at least as far as Ancient Greece.
• The Acropolis Museum in Athens features a column base showing goddess Hera shaking hands with Athena, the goddess of wisdom and courage.
• Shaking hands showed both parties as equals, rather than bowing or curtseying.
• The handshake has evolved to have multiple uses, including meeting, greeting, parting, offering congratulations, expressing gratitude, or completing an agreement.
• In sports, it is also done as a sign of good sportsmanship, conveying trust, respect, and equality.