Here's the deal, so far as I can gather:
Studies of austraulopithecus fossils indicates that the approximate 20%/80% left/right proportion is not a new development. Statistics showing a lower # at, for example, the turn of the century can indeed be attributed to social attempts to discourage left-handedness, for reasons no doubt related to superstition and ignorance.
The social tendencies in all anthropologically-studied cultures to use the right hand for eating, greeting, touching, etc., and using the left hand for poopy and whatnot, are ubiquitous. There is no 50/50 split between cultures that favor the left hand and cultures that favor the right. This indicates something genetic... and it is genetic!
As your brain forms, while you're in the womb, one of the things that is normally, genetically assembled in your brain is handedness, and the part of your brain that would normally control writing is in the left hemisphere -- the half that handles reading, writing, 'rithmatic, and rspeech*. Hence, since it's in the left hemisphere, it is expressed in the half of the body controlled by that hemisphere -- the right half!
Apparently, however, if a certain, relatively common and relatively minor form of brain disruption occurs at a certain point in your fetal development, the section that handles handedness (and some other functions) is damaged, or does not develop properly. Fortunately, the development process is full of backup plans; the handedness is taken over by the right hemisphere -- the imagination, pattern recognition and general creativity half -- and life goes on.
This theory explains why, among other things, left-handedness occurs more often in lunatics, artists and generally creative people -- the creative half of their brain has been given more to do and ends up with a more dominant role than in the usual brain heirarchy. This also ties into the normal function of the brain to make connections between concepts and ideas; a brain that has been through an early trauma, such as the left/right-hand switch, seems more capable of making unique connections -- that is, of having ideas no one has ever had before, or at least combining them in new ways.
DaVinci, Hendrix, Chaplin, Picasso, Paul McCartney, Einstein, Michaelangelo, Benjamin Franklin, W.C. Fields and Bob Dylan come to mind as notable artists (of one form or another) who were southpaws. (Also, presidents Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton. There may have been others, but because of the old practice of changing handedness, we'll never know!)
Clavis (a southpaw, obviously!)
*Had to make them all "r"-sounds.
[ 23-09-2001: Message edited by: Clavis ] |
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