Left or Right?

Right

Dexter

Right-handed, my mother's a lefty though.

Oops! (see below v)

Edited by Peter

Good points, but even the most 'primitive' cultures have a kind of stick or club for defense/attack and it was used by all (the concept of upper-class appeared more recently). Brazilian natives used 500 years ago a kind of wooden stick (in the right hand) and a wooden or skinned shield (in the left hand) protecting the heart - and it was used for the whole mass of warriors.

Conflicts between different human tribes probably have more than 50.000 years and at that time the human population was sufficiently small to allow that transformations could be widespreaded. The use of spears (one shot only) and the arrow is also recent. The combats were head-to-head, face-to-face. Again, reporting to the Brazilian natives, they did not use the arrow to combat only for hunting and fishing. Some tribes had a kind of spear too thin to be efective against another person but very useful when hunting birds and small mammals.

If we are all naturally right-handed then why lefty parents have generally lefty children? It is genetical, not congenitous. And the fact that other great primates are 50/50 (as long as I read) shows that some kind of adaptation (natural or forced) happened with our ancestors.

ivan_2068 wrote: Atkingani wrote: My father, a History teacher, had an interesting theory. He said that in the past the humankind was 50/50, but when wars started, the lefties were in misadvantage because they had to use the sword with the left hand leaving the heart exposed and consequently they died hugely. The only lefties that remained were the non-warriors, generally shamans, priests, sorcerers, etc. so all present lefties descend from these guys and that's why they're all mysterious and surprising. BTW: I'm a righty surrounded by lefties!  I don't know if your father is right, I'm not an atropologyst, but in my case, the evolution worked very fast. I studied in a Catholic school in the late 60's I was in what we call "Primaria" (We have 6 years of Primaria and 5 years of Secundaria which would be the equivalent to High School), and we were trusted to Nuns until we reached high school when we were sent to a Priests school. I was born left handed, when I play soccer I use the left foot to kick the ball. But there was this very old nun in school who believed left handed was wrong (Old nuns believed left side is from the devil) and she forced the two lefties of my class to write with the right hand. I learn how to write with the right hand, but my handwritting is terrible with both hands today. Iván

Ivan, because you twice reminded of my earlier ignored post ( ) I reproduce it here ...

I remember a tour of a medieval fortress where they said that staircases were always built in such a way that left-handed people were at an advantage ... and so the ruling aristocracy would spread stories about the left hand being the "hand of the devil" ... dunno how valid it is!

Interestingly, my uncle really benefitted from being a lefty ... he's in his 70s now and when he was going to school in the post World War II era, those idiots forced him to write with his right-hand ...

The benefit was that he became ambidexterous, which really helped him ... because he went on to be one of the best field hockey wingers in the world (being able to dribble on both sides with equal strength!) ... and played for Malaysia in three Olympics in the 60s!

Atkingani wrote: I read it, Martin... but your uncle was lucky, I have a cousin lefty-born who was forcedly changed to righty and he had serious problems of speaking and learning when he was a teenager, the specialist made him return to lefty (he was 17-18, I guess) and he improved greatly. He is now a teacher.

Another example of humanity's shocking stupidity ... that's just three cases in this site alone ... of course my uncle's case, like Ivan's was also that in a Catholic school ... I guess the superstitition might have had something to do with it ...

I often wonder what commonly accepted practices nowadays will be seen as remarkable folly by future generations ... I'm guessing quite a bit! /

Atkingani wrote: It's changing... here in Brazil, even in Catholic schools they do not make it anymore. The schools (public or private) are obliged to supply adequate material for left-handed alumni.

Perú as Brazil are very traditionalist countries and both languages have Latin roots, so it's easy to find the conextion.

Right hand is translated as "Diestra" (Dexter): Referring to Jesus Christ, the Apostles Creed says: "Subió a los cielos, está sentado a la DIESTRA de Dios Padre todopodero" ( He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty), so "DIESTRA" is the priviledged site, the honor guest is always sitted at the right hand of the host, unless he has a very high rank in which case he is sitted at the head of the table.

Left is translated also as "Siniestra", in this case the translation is clear also for English speaking people, becausee the connotation of Sinister is evident, related with evil...devil.

But this superstition fell in obliviom. even the Catholic priests make fun of it, but Nuns in the 60's  used to be more isolated from the external world, specially the old ones, so they still had old beliefs.

Plus there was an aditional fact, the desks were all made for right handed (Not a perfect rectangle  but with a piece made for the right arm to rest while writting) , it was almost impossible for a left handed to write on it.

In high school it was completely different, there were desks for left handed (5 in each class which is the average) the Priests were all good teachers and didn't believed in superstitions that have nothing to do with Religion.

I know of people who have problems because of being forced to change hands, but aparently what saved me is hat i played a lot of Beisball oin school and the trainer was happy to have at least one ambidextrous pitcher, so he encouraged me to use the hand that I wanted when I wanted (Being a USA school, the Beisball coach was a priest).

But my handwritting is horrible!!!!!!!!

Iván

Edited by ivan_2068

I just checked something, most of the artists paint the moment when  Saint Michael Archangel is defeating Lucifer with him holding the sword in the right hand and keeps Lucifer in the left side with his left foot:

 

The iconography is more evident here:

You can see in this VI Century mosaic from the Church of Saint Apolinar Nuovo in Rávena (Italia):about the Judgement Day that God is sitted at the center, the angel of light (red) is at his right and God almost touches the white sheep with that hand (right).

In the left is the blue angel (Blue is the color of darkness) and the dark goats (sinners) are in that side.

This is coherent with the Gospel of Matthew:

32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Notice that both angels use the right hand to stop the dark goats,  breaking the simetry of the wall and neither God's or the angels left hands can be seen.

Of course that most Catholic priests today understand the Bible is full of symbolism and must not be understood as a literal description, but this didn't happened some years ago.

Iván

Edited by ivan_2068

Right handed.My handwriting is pretty horrible!