Kevon Cheeke

Proposal 

As a child, when you met someone new  that you liked, but didn’t know when you’d see them again, it’s possible that you created something special and unique so that you could remember each other til the next time. It was always the last second before your folks told you it was time to go home, so your little kid brain scrambled to come up with the most elaborate gestures ever, after just spending the last 2 hours getting chased around and/or being the one doing the chasing. Due to an unwavering sense of will power and an ungodly amount of adrenaline, you both produce the perfect abomination, one that symbolizes the good times and memories that were being built on that day of play, and finally you depart maybe to never ever see them again. This creation that I am of course referencing is the handshake. 

The handshake is a small, yet noble facet of society harboring existence for what some speculate to be thousands of years. From its inception to the world up until now, we’ve seen its presence used for a variety of purposes all being unique to the situation it was brought up in. Handshakes have seen face during times of peace and prosperity the same way they marked beginnings to periods of destruction and despair so their unbiased in regards to what part of history they’re included in. It’s a tool that can be seen from a global scale, having been used, to some extent, in a large plethora of countries in the world. They hold tons of communal value, being able to mean a certain thing depending on where it’s being said or who’s saying it and there isn’t a universal look for it, meaning it can be bent or changed depending on what wills it.

Through my research efforts, I hope to look a little way back into history and analyze the growth and development of the handshake as well as its variations, getting to look at it from different perspectives within history leading up until now. I want to focus on the instances in which its impact was viewed on a cultural, spiritual and historical level through the lenses of community building and family as it pertains to the course. 

My interest in the topic extends from a childhood in which I saw some of the coolest hand movements I didn’t know were possible. Whether it was; a cowboy shaking hands with natives, Kings of African nations greeting other members of royalty, or a dog giving paw to its owner, I thought there was something interesting to be said about this tool that could take different forms and meanings depending on the person. I’d like to be able to present this information in a way that would make you feel the gestures true importance within the bounds of history, to mark our agreement of letting me do so, you must firmly grasp my hand and shake it to start this journey. The choice is yours…

(A) Shake hand ✔️ 

(B) Don’t shake hand