It is natural that gestures have history and that this variety according to the evolution of each culture; however, some gestures have become almost universal and have varied little in several thousand years, like some that we are going to show you in this article.
Of the obscene gesture of "making the finger"
The gesture has been traced back to ancient Greece, and is recorded in a comedy by Aristofanes, in The clouds .This signal, which in Latin America is also known as "painting a dove", and that is to show the middle finger picking up the other fingers, among the Greeks it was called katapygon and it was interpreted as being put in the anus, and it was with the Romans that happened to be a representation of the male genitals and continued with their offensive load.
The Romans attributed to the representation of the penis and the testicles a great power to reject the evil eye , so making the gesture to an enemy was also a protection.
Show thumb
In some Middle Eastern cultures The equivalent of showing the finger is to show the thumb, although with a meaning similar to that of the Greeks (they are also going to put it through the anus).This gesture has today a positive charge acquired in recent times, because in the Ancient Rome, and despite what we have seen in numerous movies, the gesture with the thumb, regardless of whether it was up or down, meant only one thing: death .
It was in the Middle Ages that the thumbs up acquired a positive connotation between the French and the English, of "it's okay", and then the gesture continued to spread throughout the West.
Curiously, in China This gesture also had a positive meaning.
Bringing the hand extended to the head
This martial greeting evolved from a gesture of education that went beyond the military world, that of to take off the hat as a sign of respect before a lady or a superior.Among the English military the gesture was stylized for practical reasons (sometimes it was not easy to get rid of the helmet strap, or in the middle of maneuvers), until it was left in the current martial greeting that we see again and again in the cinema.
Instead the Hitlerian and the fascist greeting were taken and reinvented from the Roman military salute.
Bump the punches
This gesture is not as old as its origin dates back to the boxing fights of the seventies, when boxers collided with gloves before starting a fight, this action was subsequently imitated by professional basketball players and from there to other sports disciplines and to be a form of greeting among young people from all over the world.
Hand gestures and their meanings vary not only from culture to culture but from country to country, do you want to share with us the history of any gesture in your region? And remember that by gestures we can discover a liar, as we explain in this article.
Images: Petter Duvander, hobvias sudoneighm, Kai Schreiber, Brian Talbot, Oscar F.Hevia
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