Hands

by John Russell Napier, Russell H. Tuttle (Editor)

Intended for all readers--including magicians, detectives, musicians, orthopedic surgeons, and anthropologists--this book offers a thorough account of that most intriguing and most human of appendages: the hand. In this illustrated work, John Napier explores a wide range of absorbing subjects such as fingerprints, handedness, gestures, fossil remains, and the making and using of tools.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Design, Art

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1980

About the author

British primatologist, paleoanthropologist & physician, who is notable for his work with Homo habilis.
Napier was one of the first notable scientists to give serious attention to the Bigfoot/Sasquatch phenomenon. His investigations included interviewing amateur investigators and purported eyewitnesses, visiting alleged Bigfoot sighting areas, studying the scant physical evidence, and screening the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film, which he concluded was a clever hoax.

Reviews

[Boris Smus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting deep-dive into human hands from many different perspectives: anatomical, evolutionary, functional and social. The book is packed with facts. For example, I had no idea the carpal bones were so numerous and complex! Also, it's nice to understand why human opposition differs from monkeys and the Opposability Index. Lots of interesting insights into distribution of handedness, including that certain species of monkeys are predominantly left handed, which is surprising on several levels. Napier also goes a bit into fingerprints, basic patterns, and mentioning some relation to worn-off finger prints in people with Celiac. It was fun to cross-correlate what was written in the book with my own hands.

Overall a thoroughly interesting account and I found good insights from an HCI perspective. I did think that the second part on social and cultural aspects was too brief and incomplete.

> With the eye, the hand is our main source of contact with the physical environment. The hand has advantages over the eye because it can observe the environment by means of touch, and having observed it, it can immediately proceed to do something about it. The hand has other great advantages over the eye. It can see around corners and it can see in the dark.

[Nathan Hebda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately this book feels haphazardly slapped together. The bulk is on evolution of the hand which while very interesting is poorly organized and since it’s 1993 revision not supplemented by research of the last three decades. The section on tool use and construction suffers from the same issues and just isn’t written well. Gestures and fingerprints were too short and uninspired and featured lengthy digressions on non hand related topics. Still an interesting read.

[Antony Monir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting work of anatomical and cultural anthropology focused on the hands. Some information is dated (and therefore misleading or incorrect) but most of it is very interesting. There’s a lot to the hands that we don’t think about despite using them all the time. Hands is good short read. 4/5

[MaryAnne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, short non fiction book all about hands. Two things about it that resulted in only 2 stars. First it was quite a hodge podge of information. at times the author spent way too much time on a topic (very detailed chapter on toolmaking... ) which made it overall a bit of a mess. Secondly it is an older book (1980) so some parts are quite dated. I know that his writings on early hominids and Neanderthal are somewhat inaccurate due to more recent findings. But, it was nonetheless quite interesting in parts and I found myself curiously examining my hands as I read about this marvelous "organ".

[Sohelmk]

I read this book after Bret Victor's allusion to it in his rant against Microsoft's vision of touch screens (http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnThe...). The book does challenge one's estimate of "hand", its design (and the Designer). As I am waiting for carpal tunnel syndrome diagnostics for my right hand, I wish we can come up with better interfaces than mouse, keyboard and touch screens.

[Adam Wiggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The human hand is one of the most intricate and sophisticated machines known to us. It's also one of the most human. This is a fascinating dive into the physiological properties of hands, the evolutionary process that got us here, and how human hands compare to various other primates. Also touches on topics like fingerprints, hand gestures used in communication, and the function of hands in tool-using and -making.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I admire him as a scientist and continue to reread some of his classic papers, this book is a mess. It's hard to imagine that very many people would be interested in the disparate subject matter presented in this book. It's all related to hands, but with coverage ranging from early ape fossils to modern dancing styles, it's a head-scratcher.

[Jeremy Hornik · Rating 3 out of 5]

A study of hands: physiology, function, evolution, handedness, fingerprints. Physiology and function were the most interesting chapters to me, especially the analysis of different grips: power, precision, and so on. Written in a voice I might call "popular science droll", which I enjoyed.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part one, "Nature and Evolution of the Hand," is excellent, and I'd recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in the subject. Part two, "Social and Cultural Aspects of the Hand," is less clear and less complete, but still interesting.

[Nancy Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hands is a comprehensive yet quick book on the structure, history, tool-making capability, etc. of hands. The most interesting chapters for me were hand capabilities and gestures because they provide a nice way to think about future human-computer interactions.

[Kari · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was blah. But short, so I read most of it. If I wrote a book, my acknowledgements page would look like his. (Ha ha, was that the most interesting part?)

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry but informative. I learned all sorts of facts. The fun part is, you can check many of the assertions by moving the book aside and starting at your hands and fingers.

[Branning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great anatomical and historical view of hands and gestures. Found the anthropological bits thin.

[Jacob Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

The classic study of the science of the human hand and its evolution by one of the great surgeons and great paleontologists of the subfield.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my quest to learn as much as an Everyman can about the human thumb, this book is indispensible.