L.A. Hand Sign

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, California, United States
Performance Date: 2-23-2023
Primary Language: English

Text:

Context:

The informant learned this at a summer camp in San Diego from some girls from Los Angelos (L.A.).

Analysis:

The gesture is representative of an “L” and an “A.” As the initials of the city of Los Angeles, these two letters are an easy connection to the city. While this sign could be a gesture used to identify with other citizens of Los Angeles, the arrangement of the hands does not seem intuitive enough to me to align with this. Instead, I think this gesture is connected with experimentation on what shapes one’s hands can create. Like the hand llama this gesture could be used in a variety of ways and it stretches the traditional uses of hands.