Posted on 11/22/2019 4:44:45 AM PST by SunkenCiv
While there's no righty or lefty gene, DNA does seem to play a role in handedness. In a recent study published in Brain: A Journal of Neurology, researchers at the University of Oxford looked at the DNA of about 400,000 people in the U.K. and found that four regions of the genome are generally associated with left-handedness. Three out of these four regions were involved in brain development and structure. Some researchers hope that studying the biological differences between lefties and righties could shed light on how the brain develops specializations in its right and left hemispheres...
Righties have dominated for as far back in the archaeological record as researchers can see, about 500,000 years, Uomini said. Neanderthals, our now-extinct human cousins, were also strongly right-handed.
That makes humans pretty strange among animals. Several nonhuman species, such as the other great apes, are individually handed, but the split between righties and lefties is typically closer to 50-50.
What caused our extreme bias toward right-handedness to evolve and persist? From an evolutionary perspective, if right-handedness evolved because it had some kind of advantage, then you might expect left-handers to disappear completely, Uomini told Live Science. She added that there are some disadvantages to being left-handed, such as higher frequencies of work accidents. Researchers also linked left-handedness to learning disabilities, in a study published in 2013 in Brain: A Journal of Neurology.
But there's a leading theory to explain why left-handers have maintained a constant minority: the fighting hypothesis.
"The idea is that in hand-to-hand combat, or in combat with weapons, there is an evolutionary advantage to being a minority left-hander," Uomini said. "If you're left-handed, you have a surprise advantage because most people are used to fighting against right-handers."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
“I’m left handed and can barely draw stick people.”
Same here.
And in combat, the southpaw would have exactly the same setup as the right-handed majority, because that's the weapons that are around. Even in today's more enlightened world, people are still learning to write right-handed because they're more or less compelled to. In the world of ancient or medieval combat, lefties would be at a distinct disadvantage having to use stuff designed for right-handed warriors, or (and this has a natural selection angle) would avoid combat, which is why the characteristic hasn't been bred out. Mostly likely, since humans are naturally inclined to mortal struggle, they'd resort to sneaky left-handed dagger thrusts, basically becoming assassins.
“For the lefty, the first time confronting a righty in combat would leave the lefty with the same disadvantage as the righty has.”
True.
But it’s extremely unlikely that a lefty has not confronted a righty.
And it’s unlikely that a righty will ever have to confront a lefty.
Perhaps, it the lefty had just magically appeared on earth. But in real life, any and all previous interactions by the lefty in a right-handed world should have conditioned the lefty to expect a right- handed opponent. The lefty would probably not expect a left-handed opponent.
There’s a medeival story about a Scottish clan, mostly lefthanders, who designed the castle for left handed fighting.
Can’t remember the name.
Yes, because hand-to-hand combat with swords and shields has been around for the millions of years that evolution is said to take to effect a change.
However, I golf as a right-hander and also play pool as a right hander. I find it very difficult to switch the other way.
Yet in baseball, I bat left-handed and yet cannot hit the ball at all batting right-handed.
Very strange.
“In the world of ancient or medieval combat, lefties would be at a distinct disadvantage having to use stuff designed for right-handed warriors”
I would think that this point is obviously correct right up until the defensive formation breaks down (and it always does). Once one side ‘breaks’ that is where the killing really begins. And that may be where the left-hander gains an advantage. I don’t know this to be true, but I’m suggesting a reason that Left-Handedness managed to survive the tens of thousands of years of muscle-powered weaponry.
Same here. Usually I eat left-handed when I am cutting food, like with a steak. I always put the drinking glass on the left side of the plate, which drives my wife nuts because she thinks the glass should be on the right side. Write with my right hand.
Could bat both sides; a little more control right-handed, a little more power left-handed.
I kick left-footed. I could punt nearly 60 yards left-footed in high school. Maybe 40 yards right-footed.
I bowl right-handed, when means for most bowlers using the standard 4-step method you start with your right foot and finish with your left foot. But being left-foot dominated caused me add a step. I start with my left foot and finish with my left foot, five steps in total.
I’m pretty much the same. I can write with either hand but was mostly a leftie as a kid. When I taught school I could only write on the blackboard with my right hand.
When I played tennis I could only serve righty but return leftie. It does get confusing. I basically have 2 different signatures.
I know one thing, I am sick of left handed twist ties. For the last ten years they have been producing only left handed twist ties, thankfully I see this trend reverting back to right handed twist ties as it should be.
My brother writes left handed and throws right handed. Guess he could not make up his mind.
“Left handers are usually artistic.“
Left handed people are in their right mind.
So, both are swinging a sword and holding a shield, but in mirror image? Wow, that does sound like one side would have an advantage. (not)
First time in combat is the most important time. Any disadvantage would be equal, period, and that should be amply obvious. Screw up the first time, there are no subsequent times. If anything, the whole danged army would wind up left-handed after a few hundred generations if this handedness were of any significance. Clearly, the fact that humans are mostly right-handed and have remained that way for 500K years shows that there’s some genes at work, and that A) handedness doesn’t play any role at all, and/or B) as a society, we don’t spend all that much time killin’ one another.
Berserking Vikings swinging around two-handed battle axes — IOW, an amnbidextrous approach — might seem to have an edge (as it were) over either left- or right-handed adversaries, but then consider the gladiatorial combats pitting myrmidons against more heavily armed opponents.
Bettany Hughes’ “Helen of Troy” documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjwOrbfdOM0
ancient Greek wrestling time index 33:52
chariot and hand-to-hand combat 1:18:00
Almost every power tool I own is unsafe for my left handed son to operate. The guards, blades and how you stand over some of them all all designed for right handers.
LOL!
Again, there’s no such advantage. If there were, it would be easy to explain, like a three-armed warrior would have an advantage.
Then, during the French Revolution, they wanted to change as many things as possible (for the sake of change), and switched to riding or driving on the right. That spread to other countries but England rejected any innovations coming from the French Revolution (although they did eventually go to the metric system).
I'm not sure if that is correct or just an urban legend.
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