constraint
 

Hi,
I am just starting to learn animating in Maya. I want to create a constraint, constraining someones hand to a lid, so that I can lift the lid of the box and have the hand follow. I basically want to turn the arm from FK to IK. I hope this makes sense because I am used to XSI terminology. Thanks for any help.

I think you want to have a look at Learning Resources > Tutorials > Animation > Lesson 5 Inverse Kinematics > Applying parent constraints on an IK system in the manual. The link is to the Maya 6 documentation at your localhost computer (maybe the link doesn't work).
It basically shows you how to pick up somthing with a robot arm and place it somewhere else again.