Left or Right?
Dear all,
In Monday’s assembly we considered the historic attitudes towards people who are left-handed, and why the percentage of left-handers has stayed roughly the same throughout human history.
If our community is representative of society as a whole, around 10% of students, staff and parents at Brentwood will be left-handed. Remarkably, that figure is believed to have been the same throughout human history, despite the fact that for much of our existence, left-handedness was regarded as unlucky, malicious, or even – in some cultures – a sign of the devil. The word sinister – commonly used today to refer to something evil or dark, comes from the Latin word that originally meant ‘on the left side’.
Even in the ancient world left was often seen as bad, and right as good. By way of contrast, the Latin word for right is dexter, which is where we get the word dexterous, meaning ‘skill or adroitness in using the hands or body’.
There are many examples of historic anti-left-handedness; in Christianity, Eve, who gets the blame for falling to temptation, is depicted on Adam’s left side, whilst Jesus is shown sitting to the right of god. In Judaism, ancient texts associate the right with strength and godliness and the left with weakness. The left was also associated with uncleanliness in Islamic texts, and eating or drinking with the left hand was frowned upon.
Until the mid to late 20th Century, children who began to write with their left hand were forced to change to their right, sometimes having their left hand tied behind their back just to make sure.
So why has the proportion of left-handed people remained constant throughout the centuries? Well, it seems to be due to genetics, and the conflicting evolutionary pressures of competition and cooperation: left-handers appear to have a competitive advantage in activities that involve competition or fighting. For example, around 50% of top baseball hitters are left-handed, significantly more than in the general population. This is probably because it gives a surprise advantage to left-handers, as most time spent practising or playing the game will have been against right-handers. In other words, the rarer a trait, the more of an advantage it can be. On the other hand, a bigger part of human evolution has involved co-operation, which has kept right-handers in the majority due to the concept of tool-sharing. This means that most pieces of equipment have always been made for right-handed people because…you guessed it…most people have always been right-handed. Golf is a good example, where only 4% of top golf players are left-handed: when most young children take up the sport, they are likely to pick up right-handed clubs, simply because most sets of golf clubs are made that way. This applies to most tools, which explains – in evolutionary terms – why left-handers haven’t become the majority in a world where cooperation is more common than competition or conflict.
Legend has it that Napoleon Bonaparte, who was left-handed (as was Josephine, his Queen), objected to the time-honored military practice of marching on the left side of the road with weapons at the ready in the right hand: it put lefties like him at a strategic disadvantage. Once in power, so the story goes, he ordered his armies to switch sides, and civilians in countries he conquered had to do the same. It’s claimed by some that this is why vehicles in Europe now drive on the right, whereas the British (who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo) still drive on the left.
And it’s not all bad news for left-handers. No fewer than seven of the US Presidents in the 20th Century were left-handed, as is Barack Obama; Bill Gates is part of the 10% too, as were Marie Curie, Aristotle, and Leonardo Da Vinci, along with a whole host of famous actors and singers. Some have argued that being left-handed is a sign of an innovative, creative, and curious mind, all of which is celebrated on the 13th of August each year – left-handers’ day.
Have a great weekend (whether you’re right or left-handed…)
Best wishes
Michael Bond
