So, I almost wrote my senior thesis on the hand as symbol.  Here are my old notes! What do you think of this?

Religious

a) Hands = where we carry our souls.

b) gesture an important part of worship.

c) Hand: only symbol for God used during first 8 centuries of the church; represents God as creator and sustainer of all; see Deut. 3:23-24, Ezra 8:21-23, 1 Pet. 5:6. Hand: symbol of God’s power, from Exodus and Psalms.

d) Hamsa – hand as amulet

e) hands to work, hearts to God

Counterculture to Industry

a) persistence of hand work in mechanized age; image of hand as symbol of hand work; hand work as symbol of resistance, protest against conformity?

b) motif of the hand (esp. in textiles but also elsewhere) and its possible relationship to the craft movement, as an opposition to the industrial revolution.

Identity

a) aboriginal paintings using pigment sprayed over hand