SEPTEMBER 2022

CULTURE & HISTORY
Hands Clasped: From the ancient Sumerians
to modern-day Chaldeans
BY ADHID MIRI, PHD
Hand gestures are such a part
of everyday life that we often
don’t even notice them. They
have become a habit inherent in world
culture and are an integral part of communication.
From the V-sign that we
often see when people take pictures
to gestures showing thumps up or the
relatively new fist bump gesture which
comes from sport, hand gestures aren’t
going anywhere anytime soon.
At times, hand gestures endure
over spoken languages. According to
historical records, the “V” sign became
popular during World War II when performed
by Winston Churchill, the British
statesman and Prime Minister of
the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945.
He used it to symbolize victory; today,
it is commonly known as the peace
sign. In most of the world, anyway.
“Thumbs up” is perhaps the most
common of hand gestures, one that
has been used for thousands of years.
The thumbs up is commonly used by
Europeans and Americans as a sign of
approval or that things are going according
to plan.
Handshakes are hand gestures exchanged
between two people. According
to some sources, this hand gesture
originated in ancient Greece. At that
time, the movement was carried out
by the soldiers of war to the people
they met. Shaking someone’s hand by
grasping it can prove that the person’s
hand is empty. According to many archaeologists,
the point was to make
sure that the person was not hiding a
dangerous weapon.
The “OK” sign, which is made
by curling the index finger over the
thumb and extending the other fingers
above them, is another common hand
gesture in America and in most of the
English-speaking world. It is generally
understood to mean that everything is
going well and according to plan. It is
also regularly used by divers to indicate
that all is well to their dive partners.
However, in Latin America, the
gesture is seen as extremely rude.
Hayyat Nadhir and Siyya Arabo, two Chaldean women displaying different
hand clasping poses.
Former US president Richard Nixon
discovered this after flashing it to a
large crowd of Brazilians awaiting
his arrival in Rio de Janeiro. They responded
to his greeting with a chorus
of “boos.” It is not surprising; a little
research could have told him the gesture
is equivalent to a middle finger in
that part of the world.
In France, the gesture is also considered
an insult; in Australia, it
means “zero;” in New Zealand, for
some reason, the user is basically considered
to be lazy.
Using hand gestures might feel
like an intuitive way to communicate
across language barriers, but their
meaning can change, and there are
few universal signs that everyone
agrees on.
Whether consciously or not, our
hands are often giving off signals. One
position we see over and over is the
hand clasp. Both the gesture itself and
where the hands are being held in relation
to the body have meaning.
Apparently, those gestures have a
history and origin from the customs
and characteristics of the Ancient Sumerians.
There are a few variations and a
few different placements for the hands
that we’ll consider. Depending on the
situation, hands clasped or clenched together
may mean several things. In this
position, the hand palms are held together,
the right on top of the left. It may
mean that a person using it is about to
assume a strong stance, or it may mean
confidence or even nervousness. In general,
clasping the hands may signify an
unsettling thought, respect, fear, anxiety,
insecurity, and the like.
Hand clasping is the superposition
of each finger of one hand over
the corresponding finger of the opposite
hand. When clasping the hands, a
person tends to interlace the fingers in
one of two ways. People who hold the
fingers of the right hand above the left
fingers are classified as phenotype R
(right), while those who hold the fingers
of the left hand above those of the
right are phenotype L (left).
Although some people do not exhibit
a preference for one type of hand
clasping, most do. Once adopted, the
method of hand clasping tends to be
consistent throughout life. When an
individual attempts to clasp the hands
in the opposite configuration from the
usual one, that person may feel a sense
that something is out of the ordinary.
The ‘hands clasped in front’ body
language gesture is displayed in three
major ways: clasped hands in front
of the face; hands clasped on a desk
or a lap; and, whilst standing, hands
clasped over the lower abdomen.
When a person assumes the hands
clasped in front gesture, they are exercising
some sort of self-restraint.
They’re symbolically ‘clenching’
themselves back and withholding a
negative reaction, usually anxiety or
frustration. The higher the person
clenches their hands whilst standing,
the more negative they are feeling.
The body language of clasping
hands below the belt reflects that the
person feels secure and confident. For
instance, football players display this
gesture when they’re listening to their
national anthem, to show their respect
for the anthem. This gesture is also
36 CHALDEAN NEWS SEPTEMBER 2022