Editing Index finger (section)

===Pointing===
Pointing with the pointer finger may be used to indicate or identify an item, person, place or object.<ref name=Imai>{{cite web|url=http://www.comm.ohio-state.edu/pdavid/preparedness/docs/Crosscultural/gestures.pdf |title=Gestures: Body Language and Nonverbal Communication |author=Gary Imai |access-date=12 November 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100331212736/http://www.comm.ohio-state.edu/pdavid/preparedness/docs/Crosscultural/gestures.pdf |archive-date=March 31, 2010 }}</ref>

Around age one, babies begin pointing to communicate relatively complex thoughts, including interest, desire, and information. Pointing in human babies can demonstrate the [[theory of mind]], or ability to understand what other people are thinking. This gesture may form one basis for the development of human language. 

Non-human primates, lacking the ability to formulate ideas about what others are thinking, use pointing in much less complex ways.<ref name="Day">{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/how_babies_work/2013/03/26/research_on_babies_and_pointing_reveals_the_action_s_importance.html |title=Research on babies and pointing reveals the action's importance |last=Day |first=Nicholas |date=26 March 2013 |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |access-date=25 April 2013}}</ref> However, [[corvid]]s, [[dog]]s<ref name=pmid22347411>{{cite journal |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0030913 |pmid=22347411 |pmc=3275610 |title=Dogs (''Canis familiaris''), but Not Chimpanzees (''Pan troglodytes''), Understand Imperative Pointing |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=e30913 |year=2012 |last1=Kirchhofer |first1=Katharina C. |last2=Zimmermann |first2=Felizitas |last3=Kaminski |first3=Juliane |last4=Tomasello |first4=Michael |bibcode=2012PLoSO...730913K |doi-access=free}}
*{{cite press release |date=February 8, 2012 |title=Dogs succeed while chimps fail at following finger pointing: Chimpanzees have difficulty identifying object of interest based on gestures |website=ScienceDaily |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120208180251.htm}}</ref> and [[elephant]]s<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1073/pnas.0911239106 |pmid=19926857 |pmc=2791620 |jstor=40536081 |title=Phylogenomic analyses reveal convergent patterns of adaptive evolution in elephant and human ancestries |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=106 |issue=49 |pages=20824–9 |year=2009 |last1=Goodman |first1=M. |last2=Sterner |first2=K. N. |last3=Islam |first3=M. |last4=Uddin |first4=M. |last5=Sherwood |first5=C. C. |last6=Hof |first6=P. R. |last7=Hou |first7=Z. C. |last8=Lipovich |first8=L. |last9=Jia |first9=H. |last10=Grossman |first10=L. I. |last11=Wildman |first11=D. E. |bibcode=2009PNAS..10620824G |doi-access=free}}
*{{cite news |author=Katie Collins |date=October 10, 2013 |title=Elephants found to understand human pointing without training |work=Wired UK |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/10/elephant-pointing }}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> do understand finger pointing.

In some cultures, particularly the [[Malay people|Malays]] and [[Javanese people|Javanese]]<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1990/0412/dindo4.html|title=A Thumb Points the Way in Java|last=Scott|first=David Clark|date=12 April 1990|newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor|quote=...figures in some reliefs can be seen pointing - with their thumbs. 'Pointing with the index finger is a terrible thing to do. It means death or violence. People used their thumb for polite pointing and it's still the same today,' notes Jan Fontein, curator of the exhibition of ancient Indonesian sculpture sponsored by Mobil Indonesia...}}</ref> in [[Southeast Asia]], pointing using the index finger is considered rude, hence the [[thumb]] is used instead.