The world cannot decide whether it is good or bad to be left-handed. Depending on the time and country, the attitude towards them changes from contempt and fear to reverence and some envy. And today these people remain a mystery …
Children of the gods or Satan's henchmen?
Almost from the creation of the world in most countries, everything right was considered correct, positive, and left was false, dangerous. Therefore, all actions in magical rites were usually performed clockwise, if they were aimed at good, and against - when they were supposed to cause evil. And people who preferred to use their left hand instead of their right were suspected of unclean deeds by default.
The ancient Romans also feared left-handed citizens. And for good reason. The tradition of shaking hands at a meeting arose exactly there, and it was the right hand that was supposed to stretch out, greeting, as if demonstrating that there was no weapon in it and, therefore, the person's intentions were peaceful.
With the left-handers, everything was more complicated: they could greet with their right hand, and hide the other, holding a knife, behind their backs. That is why left-handers were highly valued as hired killers, and in Latin since then the word dexter, meaning right-hander, also meant "good, skill", and the word sinister, which called left-handed, also meant "evil."
For a long time, the inhabitants of Germany and Holland have called all left-handers who were awkward with weapons and tools intended for right-handed people simply clumsy - in German the word "left-handed" to this day is synonymous with a stupid, unskillful person.
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True, in countries where magical talents were valued, mysterious left-handed people were considered relatives of the gods, and therefore respected and revered as messengers of good luck.
This opinion was widespread among the Celts, in Ancient India and among the peoples of the Far North (for example, among the Eskimos).
So, since ancient times, left-handers were not liked in many countries, but the real trouble overtook them after the start of the European "witch hunt". Everyone who was different from others was declared to be Satan's henchman, and left-handed people, like no one else, approached this accusation. No wonder one of the devil's nicknames was Left-Handed.
In addition, left-handed people often showed the ability to occult - and this led them to the stake even more surely. By the end of the 17th century, left-handed Europeans accounted for only 5% of the population, although for many centuries their number did not change - up to 15% of all inhabitants of European states.
One of the reasons for the condemnation of Joan of Arc, according to legend, was precisely the fact that the French heroine was left-handed.
Centuries have passed, but almost nothing has changed in the attitude towards left-handers. In 1921, a scientific work on psychology was published, in which those who used their left hand for daily actions were directly called feeble-minded.
But by the end of the 20th century, the opposite opinion prevailed: left-handedism began to be viewed as a sign of genius. Scientists made this conclusion on the basis that many of the famous politicians, painters, writers preferred to be controlled in life with their left hand.
Where did they come from?
In the world, there are a dozen versions of the origin of the "breed" of left-handers. They can be conditionally divided into three groups: social and social, medical and fantastic.
The first includes the opinion about the equal initial number of right-handers and left-handers, conditionally constituting two different tribes. Right-handers, as the stronger ones, won and arranged the world as they liked. Of the left-handers, only the best have survived, and since then their breed has been constantly improving, while the right-handers have "rested on their laurels" and are gradually degenerating, devoid of the need to fight for survival.
A seemingly opposite, but partly related to the first theory, says that left-handers in ancient times constituted a kind of higher caste of rulers and mentors, which, by definition, could not be numerous. Over time, the social boundaries between castes have erased, and the signs of higher people have survived to this day.
Medicine also did not stay away from the problem of left-handers. Some doctors view left-handedness as a deviation from the norm, a hereditary disease that needs to be treated.
The negative view is contradicted by the opinion of another group of scientists who believe that left-handers are a select part of humanity, created by nature with an unknown, but probably very significant purpose. Until the purpose is known, you just need to carefully preserve this unique kind of people, possibly with an important purpose. In addition, some doctors believe that left-handedism can be not only hereditary.
It is assumed that ultrasound examinations of pregnant women can then cause left-handedness in newborns. A number of cases of forced left-handedness have also been noted: with an injury or illness of the right hand lasting more than six months, a person involuntarily begins to use the other hand, and this property remains with him even after recovery.
And finally, the most mysterious theory of the origin of left-handed people says that they came from the union of aliens from a parallel universe and earthly women. The aliens supposedly looked like people in appearance, but differed in supernormal abilities, which they passed on to their earthly descendants.
How to survive in the "right" world
In a world fully equipped for the convenience of right-handers, left-handers have a tough time. Even if they are not retrained and forced to write with their right hand, in many situations they must adapt to a manner of action that is alien to them. All things - from a can opener to a computer mouse, from scissors to a plumbing tool - give lefties a lot of inconvenience, since they are all designed to be taken with the right hand.
However, left-handed people have quite adapted, because their right hand is developed much better than the left hand of right-handers. In addition, tools and other products are made especially for left-handers these days, although there are not so many of them yet.
Scientists have also found that left-handers are often more talented than right-handers in mathematics, architecture, and in any other activity that requires advanced spatial thinking.
But even in the case when the situation seems to be hopeless, left-handers manage to find a workaround and emerge victorious in single combat with circumstances. Psychologists cite an interesting case in this regard.
The eighteen-year-old girl dreamed of becoming a philologist, but a serious test awaited her at the entrance exams. The fact is that with her left hand she wrote neatly and legibly, but made several mistakes in almost every word.
When writing with her right hand, no one could make out what she had written, but in this case literacy was absolute. It would seem that her chances of a high score for an essay were reduced to zero, but that was not the case - the inventive left-hander nevertheless found a way out of the impasse.
With the help of a tutor, she wrote a dozen compositions on the most common topics with her left hand and visually memorized them. One of the texts she learned helped her in the exam, and five years later the girl successfully received the coveted diploma of philology. Unsurprisingly, with such perseverance in achieving goals, many left-handers become celebrities.
Psychic flexibility, superbly developed strategic thinking and, finally, excellent intuition make it easy for left-handers to make a political career. Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, Napoleon, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and many others belong to the large cohort of left-handed politicians.
Interestingly, several lefties have become American presidents: Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. This is probably due to the fact that up to 30% of left-handers live in the United States.
Since left-handed people have better developed imaginative thinking, over the history of civilization they have managed to glorify themselves in art. The whole world knows left-handed artists Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Rubens, Pablo Picasso, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Alexander Pushkin and Lev Tolstoy brought fame to left-handers in literature. Left-handed Mozart and Beethoven, Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix have distinguished themselves on the "musical front".
The scientific world also knows many left-handed scientists. Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla and the Curies wrote their works with their left hand. By the end of the 20th century, the authority of left-handers in the world had already become so great that they got their own day of the year: on August 13, 1992, at the initiative of the British Society of Left-Handers, Left-Handed Day was celebrated for the first time.
Since then, it has been celebrated annually to tell the world community about the problems and achievements of the left-handed part of humanity. Who knows, maybe one day the time will come when there will be more left-handers on our planet than right-handers?
Ekaterina KRAVTSOVA