What Are The Cultural Symbols Of Hand Gesture

Hesham Shalash

Cultural Symbols

Hand Gestures / Greetings

Cultural ethos, defined by symbols and signs, assist the representation of real life. They embody a concept or an idea that is delivered to the audience through a form of nonverbal communication. Symbols characterize a significant part of any cultural make up and thus the symbolic life of each individual culture has a huge importance in conceiving our world. Members of distinct societies are aided by symbols to illustrate meanings without using words. Sometimes a gesture, a drawing or a spoken word is enough to evoke an emotional or national response. These activities remain the medium of expression of a society.

As any other part of a culture, symbolism is not something that is genetically

Hence the same symbol in two separate societies does not necessarily demonstrate the same meaning. For example: making an “o” using the thumb and the index finger is recognized as the “okay” gesture in the American culture, while in contrast citizens of Europe would recognize this as a sign of “zero” in their culture. In Brazil it is a vulgar insult, while in turkey it means homosexual. It is also very astonishing how such an innocent gesture like the “okay” sign could possibly cause enormous damage when accidently used out of context. If this hand gesture were to be used in an encounter between a person from an American culture and another individual from a Mediterranean or South American heritage, each would perceive it differently. For the American it would simply mean an agreeing “okay”, but for a person brought up in a Mediterranean or South American culture, he would refer to it as a symbol of “the

In their well-known arenas, the combat scenes for the gladiators, this sign was used as a signal to kill the gladiator. During World War II this gesture developed into a totally new meaning, namely a signal from the ground crew members for pilots that the plane was cleared for take off. In contrast to the meaning of the “thumbs up” gesture in the American and European cultures, in Australia, Greece and the Middle East such a gesture would be regarded as highly offensive. In these regions of the world their cultural understanding of such a gesture would mean “up yours” or “sit on this”. Other countries like Japan or Germany regard the “thumbs up” gesture simply as a number. The Germans raise their thumb to indicate the number one while the Japanese use it as a sign for the number five.

Furthermore a symbol with two distinct meaning is the beckoning gesture or also known as “the dog call”. In many cultures, curling your index finger while having the palm of your hand facing upwards is unspoken for calling a person to come towards you. On the other hand in Asia and specifically the Philippines such a hand movement is perceived to be rude and impolite.