Abstract
While the grasping of hands has been discussed from a philosophical perspective (Merleau-Ponty, 1968; Flusser, 2014) and the handshake discussed in relation to numerous forms of social interactions, Ella Al-Shamahi takes a novel approach in considering the handshake in relation to its deeper biological origins and potential future after the Covid-19 pandemic. Reflecting her roles as both a paleoanthropologist, evolutionary biologist, stand-up comic and TV presenter, Al-Shamahi’s writing style is accessible and personable, making ‘The Handshake: A Gripping History’ enjoyable and often amusing to read. Al-Shamahi intelligently challenges the idea that the handshake is a learned cultural tradition and explores its origins in evolutionary biology, as underlying its contemporary, performative role as a form of greeting, or symbol of unity. As such, she proposes the handshake as a creator of empathy and as a vector for emotional communication. Questioning the possibility of the handshake becoming extinct as we adapt to the Covid-19 pandemic, she continually situates hand shaking behaviour in historical examples to argue it is unlikely to disappear, even providing recent (by paleontological standards) examples of significant handshakes and their power to change political and social dynamics.
In its role as a form of ‘social parentheses’, bookending social encounters, Al-Shamahi argues the handshake has a ‘deep evolutionary history’ – at least seven million years’ worth in fact. Our closest related ape species shake hands (or fingers), in this case, overlapping their fingers and sometimes their palm with that of their partner. The last common ancestor to both humans and the species of ape we share handshaking behaviour with, lived seven million years ago, and so for this reason handshaking, as an evolutionary behaviour observed in differing species, is proposed to date at least this far back. If this seems a little too speculative, Al-Shamahi also notes that handshaking has been observed in uncontacted human tribes and appears to be a universal human act. It is also universally afforded positive meanings.
Though not multimodal in its approach, or an anthropology of the senses which reveals new understandings of modes of sensory experience and their interrelationship (Howes, 2014), Al-Shamahi draws attention to two often overlooked senses. She indicates the multimodal nature of the handshake early in the book, through a discussion of the combined role of smell and touch as senses through which meaning is made within the handshake. Citing studies which demonstrate that humans can infer emotion from the scent of human bodily fluids (not only sweat, but also tears) Al-Shamahi focuses on ‘chemosignals’ as an evolutionary means of alerting a social group to an emotional response which may be relevant to survival, such as fear or anger. Touch as a part of the multimodal aggregate of a handshake serves to spread tiny droplets of bodily fluid, and thereby scent. Having been exposed to public health messages warning of the dangers of touching our faces with unwashed hands during the Covid-19 pandemic, Al-Shamahi’s following argument may be unsurprising, if a little disconcerting for those of us who may be (newly) germ phobic. Citing studies which demonstrate that people smelled their hands (unconsciously bringing them near to their nose or touching their nose) more often after shaking hands, and that we breathe in twice as much air through the nose when touching the face, Al-Shamahi argues that humans share emotion through smell, via touch. When combined with the release of stress and promotion of social bonds through touch (via Oxytocin), the sharing of chemosignals conveying emotion creates camaraderie and empathy. Touch primes the body to trust (albeit within a social group) when we receive an indication of trust from another person, therefore a reciprocal gesture like a handshake is the ideal biological means to kick start and sustain social cooperation.
In many ways these processes could be considered the biological modal affordances (Kress, 2010) of the handshake. Al-Shamahi next develops her argument focussing on the symbolism of the handshake; to extend the multimodal comparison, considering why it is the motivated sign (Kress, 2010) of choice in particular contexts. Al-Shamahi demonstrates the role of handshakes in creating hierarchy and argues that greeting behaviours are performative, and project social understandings. In this context there is symbolic power in symmetrical gestures which do not imply differing status. The rise of the handshake is also linked to the rise of democracy in Europe and America when performative, unequal greetings were rejected as a form of dissent. As these handshaking cultures became culturally dominant, Al-Shamahi argues this has helped to maintain the handshake as a globally recognised gesture. One whose affordances are comparatively well understood and, in comparison to other greeting rituals discussed, simple, efficient, and not too familiar. While biological in origin, the particular, western handshake many of us recognise (as opposed to other forms) is very much a product of cultural imperialism.
Having proposed explanations of the history and role of the handshake, Al-Shamahi gives a step-by-step guide to handshakes. She opens this short chapter with a mathematical formula for the perfect handshake by Professor Geoffrey Beattie. Central to the formula are many qualities recognisable as communicative modes: eye contact, verbal greeting, smile, various qualities of the touch, e.g. strength, grip, control, and duration. Apparently in this case a multimodal aggregate can be granted numerical value and ‘scored’! Al-Shamahi notes that such scoring is often based on power dynamics, and instead offers her own lay-person’s guide to a more egalitarian handshake. Next Al-Shamahi reviews the best and worst (recent) historical handshakes, in particular focussing on their role in establishing equality and breaking social boundaries, or conversely failing to be reciprocated, or honoured, and indicating social rejection. In the latter category we see examples of more familiar multimodal attention to the communicative encounter, discussing the role of gaze, attention (missing intended handshakes) and action or posture (to overly assert dominance, or failing to adapt to an unexpected gesture). Al-Shamahi closes with the ultimate rebuttal of the handshake as a sign of empty hands carrying no weapons: the assassination of American President William McKinley by a man ostensibly seeking to shake his hand.
To return to the initial question of the handshake dying out due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Al-Shamahi notes just how starkly ingrained the habit of shaking hands was proven to be, particularly in the public and political spheres, when it was no longer deemed an acceptable practice. She highlights awkward aborted, or illegal and irresponsible handshakes, along with legal precedents requiring them (for example to be naturalised as a Danish citizen) which were newly re-framed in social context. Yet while our personal response to touch might be new, Al-Shamahi provides examples of previous plagues and pandemics and their promise of the death of social touch. For example, an account of reluctance to shake hands during a 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia. This, along with radical health policies such as a Roman kissing ban or attempts to swear fealty to a young Henry VI without a ceremonial kiss demonstrate that though we respond to fears of contagion, our ingrained touch habits bounce back once the threat has passed. As such, the book is refreshing in its stance that Covid hasn’t, in actual fact, fundamentally changed our social world and avoids the sensationalism which its focus might imply. While many of Al-Shamahi’s arguments are inherently speculative, based in deep evolutionary history, she convincingly argues her theories with current anthropological and biological reasoning, although, as a light-hearted and accessible book ‘The Handshake: A Gripping History’ sometimes feels a little un-substantiated, perhaps a reflection of the lack of large scale anthropological and ethnographic comparative data on greeting behaviours.
While a work at the intersection of evolutionary biology and paleoanthropology may be a surprising place to find new directions for considering multimodal interaction, ‘The Handshake: A Gripping History’ makes just such a contribution. Not least of which is the identification of chemosignals being shared through touch during communicative encounters. If social meanings can be communicated biochemically at a subconscious level, what implications does this have for the way that we think about communicative modes? Despite the influence of Covid-19, Al-Shamahi argues that the handshake is far from ‘extinct’, as few other greetings offer the same universal acceptance, or recognition, along with biological functions. If this is so, it seems there will be plenty of opportunity to study the handshake as an aggregate of an expanded range of modes (including the communicative and meaning making aspects of touch and scent) in future.