ICH Courier

A Time to Reclaim Our Hands

“It was a folly for mankind to discard the hand. We shall soon curse ourselves.” This was Gandhi’s prescient warning, an early insight into the impending self-destruction that the modern civilization of mass production, built to replace manual labor, would unleash upon humanity. Gandhi was convinced that the solution to the existential threat faced by Indian communities and the violence of civilization lay in craftsmanship. It was with this conviction that he proposed communal spinning on the charkha, thus giving birth to ‘Gandhi’s spinning wheel.’Yet, contrary to his hopes, the relentless march of civilization pushed the hand to the sidelines, relegating it to a symbol of cultural regression.
Recently, Sweden reinstated physical books and handwriting in its school curricula, a response to a significant decline in literacy stemming from the overuse of smart devices. Indeed, the unique capabilities of the hand within our physiology are well-established. It is believed that without the hand, there would be no civilization, no cultural achievements, and no crucial restoration of balance between mind and body. Despite this, the industrial system since the modern era has compelled us to abandon our hands, confining us to the role of mere consumers. This, in turn, gravely imperils the very existence of our societal communities.
The climate crisis humanity now faces fundamentally stems from the problem of material goods. This is precisely why the hand has recently emerged as a central thesis in the history of civilization. Voices calling for the return of the hand are rising from all corners. The reason we are recalling the hand, which modern civilization discarded, lies in the instability of the machines that replaced it. The unchecked production of goods, carelessly discarded, has turned our planet into a massive landfill, with microplastics now penetrating deep into our organs.

Furthermore, the overly amplified technology has left humanity enervated, posing another significant problem. In response, the understanding that we must reawaken the bodily senses we’ve lost by rekindling the use of our hands is gaining momentum. This intellectual introspection is intertwined with the anxiety that the growth-at-all-costs paradigm of science and technology will ultimately drive humanity to uncontrollable ruin. It is also rooted in the profound realization that modern civilization, by excluding the hand, has devolved us into deformed humans, reducing our autonomy to little more than the act of choosing what to consume. Consequently, the hand is being re-evaluated as humanity’s final recourse against the reckless dominance of material goods, and as an intangible wellspring of potential to transcend the instability born from an era steeped in materialism.

The recent achievements in the medical and scientific research of the hand are truly remarkable. Studies range from the view that the hand is directly linked to creativity to its inherent autonomy, and these findings are both diverse and empirically supported. This implies that the hand, which modern civilization excluded from production, is in fact essential for our survival, and its deficiency leads to a breakdown in the balance of our body and mind. This understanding is further expanded by the ethical reflection that goods produced through someone’s exploitation cannot make us happy, along with the hope that we can reject the mechanical subjugation of the body and control the inertia of overproduction to reorganize our lives.
The ‘value of the hand,’ articulated in unison by philosophers like Richard Sennett, Matthew B. Crawford, and Hannah Arendt, is profoundly significant. Their discussions extend beyond a simple revival of manual skills, venturing into the very viability of an alternative civilization. The discourse on craftsmanship, intertwined with human existence and ecological challenges, has long transcended the mere category of craft. William Coperthwaite, who pioneered the awakening of the hand’s value and function, also emphasized, “To fully develop emotionally and intellectually, cultivating manual skills is paramount.”1) This encapsulates the essence of the hand’s intangible value.
Buoyed by this recognition, efforts to healthily restore the function of the hand are emerging worldwide. Activities such as Civic Workshops, the Maker Movement, de-growth and sharing economy initiatives, and appropriate technology fall under this umbrella. YouTube channels showcasing individuals living self-sufficiently with primitive technology in forests, cut off from civilization, are drawing subscribers. This, alongside the broad appeal of TV programs exploring wilderness survival or off-grid lifestyles, can be read as a phenomenon underscoring the hand’s value beyond civilization.

Pondering through the Hand
For a long time, I pondered the origins of the creative abilities possessed by artisans. It was difficult to explain the astonishing capacity of artisans, often far removed from formal schooling, who spearheaded civilization’s progress in traditional societies and created masterpieces of unparalleled skill. This puzzle has been entirely resolved by scientific explanations of the hand’s capabilities.
Testimonies from the medical and scientific community affirming the remarkable abilities of the hand are plentiful. In The Wonder of the Human Hand, compiled by experts from the US ‘Curtis National Hand Center’ including E.F. Shaw Wilgis, multiple authors unanimously stated that “the hand is a visible part of the brain.”2) This aligns with Kant’s assertion that the hand is a part of the brain that has emerged outside the body. Frank Wilson’s argument that the hand can independently decide its movements without direct control from the brain empirically substantiates this. 3)
The argument that the human hand is more crucial than the brain in delving into the principles of things is gaining increasing traction. Neuroscientist Kiso Kubota unequivocally stated, ‘creativity emerges from the hand.’ Richard Sennett’s remark that one needs hands, not just eyes, to truly grasp objects aligns with this context. It’s fascinating that the Korean word ‘pa-ak (grasp)’, meaning ‘to firmly understand the essence or meaning of an object,’ originates from the act of ‘grasping an object with the hand,’ and similarly, the English word ‘catch’ can also mean ‘to understand.’ Kubota’s claim that “human evolution might cease if we stop using our hands”4) is also hard to dismiss.
Furthermore, anthropologist Lévi-Strauss used the term ‘bricoleur’ to describe the wild wisdom of solving problems without a prepared manual. This concept explains the ingenuity of artisans, often without formal education, who led civilization in traditional societies through their intangible skills. The artisan’s skilled hand, guided by self-acquired rules of thumb, created and sustained what was necessary for the community.

The Hand and ICH
The hand has been a crucial driving force behind civilization and culture. The experience etched into the hand represents an intangible asset. This is where the meaning of passing down embodied experience to future generations lies, and it is precisely why the hand holds such a pivotal position in intangible heritage. Just as means cannot justify ends, in the era of climate crisis, the ethical means of production that do not defy the ecological environment are paramount. This notion reawakens us to the fact that the hand in our time holds a value beyond mere instrumentality.
Well-made objects crafted by hand are not easily discarded by those who use them. Cherished and passed down through generations, such items reduce overproduction and excessive waste, remaining as records that bear witness to their era. When an object possesses the power to withstand the tides of change and avoid being discarded, we call it a classic.
For the foreseeable future, one of the civilization’s persistent agendas will likely be the creative dismantling of the mass production system to revive ecological civilization, and to restore ‘thinking hands’ to human bodies that have been reduced to mere mechanical parts. The path to establishing symbiotic values between humans and objects, and between humans themselves, lies not in materialism but in realizing intangible values like the hand in our reality.
Repeatedly, the global crisis originated from material goods. Even while agreeing with this premise, the inertia of our perception still gravitates towards abundant consumption. The attitude that regards the freedom to use lavishly and discard easily as a right remains unchanged, and there’s no hesitation in praising designers who maximize sales by stimulating consumer psychology as highly capable. A system that incites material desires to multiply capital no longer holds a future.
If material excess is the problem, the solution must be found and reconstructed at its antithesis. The desire for material possessions, like drinking seawater, only amplifies thirst the more one consumes. We must find ways to lessen the desire to own, to waste less, and to use things longer. Here, the ethics of the making process and an ecological attitude that considers the environment are crucial. The reason we look to the hand as an alternative civilization is to gradually replace industrial consumer goods with good, ethically made items, and to restore the lost balance of our bodies. ICH