Bonobo ChimpThe hand gesturing of politicians can be traced back to the manual signals first used by our ape ancestors, according to a study by Amy Pollick and Frans de Waal, of Yerkes National Primate Research Centre at Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Apes and humans can both communicate with their limbs as well as vocally. Hand and other limb gestures almost certainly evolved long before the development of language. It could explain why politicians like to emphasise a point with a clenched fist, explain a failed policy with an upturned palm or bat away an unpleasant question with a raised hand.
Insert politician to be derided here
The study looked at gestures among chimpanzees and bonobos, a closely related species of pygmy chimp, and found they both used movements of arms and legs to communicate. "The natural communication of apes may hold clues about language origins, especially because apes frequently gesture with limbs and hands, a mode of communication thought to have been the starting point of human language evolution," the scientists say in their study in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers found that vocal calls such as a scream were closely tied to a particular emotion whereas hand or limb gestures were used in a looser manner. "A chimpanzee may stretch out an open hand to another as a signal for support, whereas the same gesture toward a possessor of food signals a desire to share," said Dr Pollick.
That's teh hand gestures explained, the screaming explains why the Commons sometimes has all the grace and style of an old chimp's tea party.
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