A general look at handheld objects

[Sam G]

Sam G,

that would be true if we had positively identified all the objects that they hold, or even the themes of the sections or the validity of our perception of what a section is; but we haven't.
So how can we understand why unidentified people (we're not even sure they are meant to be people) hold unidentified objects?  
The exchange above between Koen Gh and Diane in fact illustrates this: the discussion of how objects are held will almost necessarily have to make a first stop via the identification of said objects.
So I fear that this thread will end up as a collection of object ID's.

This still seems backwards.  If we could securely ID the objects, then there might not be a problem considering them in isolation, as we could probably safely do in the case of the crossbow for instance.  But since we can't securely ID the objects, and since most of them are probably too indistinct to identify in isolation anyway, it seems the only way forward would be to look at them in a broader context.