Gestures are bodily actions used to communicate important messages, either in place of speech or together and in parallel with spoken words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body.
Gestures are culture-specific and can convey very different meanings in different social or cultural settings. Although some gestures, such as the ubiquitous act of pointing, differ little from one place to another. Most gestures do not have invariable or universal meanings but connote specific meanings in particular cultures. A single emblematic gesture can have very different significance in different cultural contexts, ranging from complimentary to highly offensive.
The communication of street life.
Gestures being effected by mainstream commercialism? think of specific gestures that are widely recognised as defining certain events, actions or certain types of people.
Things to think about…
- Hand gestures
- Categories
- Personalisation
- Stereotypes
Gestures...
Further examination…
So much can be said with a hand gesture. Here are the stories behind gestures you might use every day, and some you might not
The Vulcan Salute
We all know it, even if we can't all do it. The Vulcan Salute, made famous by Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock on the original Star Trek, has become a cultural icon recognized even by those who have never been to a sci-fi convention. And while the gesture is meant to be from another planet, its inspiration is anything but alien.
When Nimoy was a child, he witnessed a Jewish ritual called the "kohane blessing," which uses a hand sign meant to resemble the Hebrew letter "shin," which symbolises the Hebrew word for "Shaddai," meaning "Almighty (God)." (Got that?) It's made by splitting the hand down the middle—holding the index and middle fingers together, the ring and pinky fingers together—and then the thumb pressed firmly against the side of the hand. The Orthodox priest giving the blessing holds both hands out in front of him in these strange configurations, palms down. When Nimoy was developing a greeting to be used between Vulcans, he remembered the sign and adapted it, using only one hand held up, and pulling his thumb away from the rest of the hand.
Nimoy had no problem doing the salute, but not all Trek actors have been so lucky.
William Shatner had to have his fingers tied together with fishing line whenever Captain Kirk needed to use the sign. Even the latest pointy-eared Vulcan, actor Zachary Quinto, who played a younger Mr. Spock in the recent blockbuster film, had to have his fingers stuck together with the skin-safe superglue used by hospitals as a replacement for traditional stitches.
The Shaka sign
Folding your three middle fingers down while holding out your thumb and pinky, then twisting your hand around, is a strange gesture to say the least. But if you visit Hawaii, you're likely to see it a lot. The gesture, called The Shaka Sign, can be interpreted as "Hello," "Goodbye," "Have a nice day," "Take it easy," "Good luck," or, the most popular definition, "Hang loose." Unfortunately, the sign's history is a bit vague.
The oldest origin story goes back to the days when Spanish sailors first landed on the Hawaiian Islands. Unable to speak the native tongue, but trying to be friendly, the Spaniards offered to share a drink by mimicking a bottle with their hand with the gesture and tilting back their head. This became such a common greeting that the natives simply believed that's how the Spanish said hello, so they started using the sign whenever the two groups encountered one another.
The Corna
Hand gestures can have multiple meanings. Perhaps one of the best examples of this is the "hand horn," also known as the "corna," where only the pinky and the index finger point up while the other fingers are held in the palm under the thumb.
If you're in Italy or Spain and you flash this sign towards a man, you might get beaten up. In this culture, the symbol represents the horns of one of nature's most virile animals, the bull. The bull in this case is usually meant to symbolize the guy sleeping with the man's wife behind his back. The sign can also be interpreted with the cuckold as the bull, who has been symbolically castrated by his wife. Either way it's bound to make him see red.
But there's another group of fans who use the corna, too "“ fans of heavy metal music. The gesture in metal goes back to occultist band Coven, a group heavily inspired by counter culture figures like renowned Satanist Anton LaVey, who used the corna as a sign of the Devil. However, it was Ronnie James Dio, lead singer for Black Sabbath in the late-1970s, that really made the sign take hold in the genre. He borrowed the gesture from his superstitious Italian grandmother who used it to ward off evil. He felt the sign's pagan origins fit perfectly with the subject matter of the band's music.
The High five
The roots of the high five go back to the Jazz Era of the early 20th Century. Black musicians of the time created numerous ways to say hello, such as "giving some skin," "giving five," and later a series of complicated, interconnected handshake gestures called a "dap." Then, in the late-1970s, college and professional basketball players began raising their arms above their heads and slapping the palms of their hands together, in what would later be dubbed the "high five."
While no one can say for sure where the high five came from, some believe the first one was exchanged between Glenn Burke and Dusty Baker, baseball players for the L.A. Dodgers, after a home run in 1977. But there is one man who claims he knows the origin of the high five, because he says he's the guy who invented it.
Useful links...http://memolition.com/2013/11/15/the-fascinating-origins-of-hand-gestures-10-pictures/
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VZ68AAAAQBAJ&pg=PT4&lpg=PT4&dq=hand+gestures+the+streets+slang&source=bl&ots=grXj6dZSVu&sig=oXAv6h_ziS8aYhzUjYa1GeerWHY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EEVWU9D5LM2S7AbbmYCwAQ&ved=0CIUBEOgBMAg#v=onepage&q=hand%20gestures%20the%20streets%20slang&f=false
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