From: Chris Taylor (christ@ebi.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 13 Dec 2004 - 11:35:51 GMT
Personally I don't know what to make of the theory -- apparently LHers
arise more frequently after prenatal ultrasound I once heard (never seen
that reliably though, and unlikely to be an effect for our forebears).
It's certainly worth burning a few calories to consider though.
One thing I will add is that in sieges, fighting in spiral stairwells in
towers, the spirals descend anti-clockwise (er...) to favour RH
defenders over RH attackers (assumed to be coming from below of course).
Sinistrelles rock in those situations...
Cheers, Chris.
Van oost Kenneth wrote:
> << Alexander The Great was one, Billy The Kid and John McEnroe were others.
> Scientists now think how to explain why people use their left- hand and
> it all got
> to do with winning a fight.
>
> About 10% use their left- hand to do things instead of using their right
> one.
> For biologists it was for many years unknown why such an important minority
> was getting born. It is known however that left- handed people get worse
> health-
> problems and are involved in more serious accidents than right- handed ones.
> Because these people are for the rest totally identical, you should
> except that
> for the greater part of the story the genetic defined left- handiness
> should had
> died out.
> So, there must be a hidden reason that contradicts the risks of being left-
> handed all together, but biologists weren 't able untill now to find it.
>
> In times that troubles were settled with our bare hands, left- handed people
> got the advantage of the surprise/ sneak attack. That advantage could only
> stay in existence if left- handed people stayed a minority, otherwise right-
> handed ones could easily adapt themselves fighting left- handed adversaries.
> Investigators of the University of Montpellier have now found strong
> arguments
> for this controversial idea.
> They are convinced that the extent of /violence /within a pre-
> industrial society
> plays a role in how high the number of left- handed people will be.
> Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond discovered that with the rising of
> violent
> agression within a society the number of left- handed people increased.
>
> Faurie:- " We discovered a direct relation between the extent of violence
> within a certain society and the number of left- handed people. That points
> to the fact that fighting is an important selectioncriteria for the
> evolution of
> left- handiness. "
>
> They admitted however that the numbers of manslaughter, wherein also the
> number of executions and gangkillings were included, wasn 't a very reliable
> standard for the number of man- to- man combats, but it was the best
> they got.
> " The result is a strong argument for the fight hypothesis. But in
> general it
> points to the importance of violence in the evolution of left- and
> right- handiness."
>
> It is proven that left- handiness is an advantage in sports like tennis,
> cricket,
> boxing or baseball, whereby there is a direct confrontation between 2 adver-
> saries. By other sports, like gymnastics there is no advantage in being
> left-
> or right- handed.
> Faurie and Raymond believe that confrontationsports like judo and karate do
> alike violent man- to- man combats.
> " Interactive sports in Western society are special forms of combat,
> with strong
> and severe ruling, including the interdiction to kill or to hurt the
> adversary on
> purpose. If left- handed people do have an important advantage in
> fighting sports
> when they are part of a minority than the same can be said for a real
> fight or
> battle situation. " is their claim.
>
> " If this is correct than is the advantage of left- handiness greater in
> a violent
> environment, what in the end should result in even more left- handed
> people. "
> And that is just what the 2 investigators determined while looking at the
> numbers of manslaughter in 8 different societies. They concluded that the
> Dioula- tribe of Burkina has the lowest level of murder and thus of left-
> handiness. The Yanamamo and the people of the Jim- Valley in Papoea
> New- Guinia have the highist number.
> Faurie says that the advantage of being left- handed should only, in
> principle
> stay in existence within man because those behave the most violently in
> each investigated society.
>
> Professor Chris McManus of University College of London however is not
> yet convinced. He claims that the data is mis- interpreted and that the
> test- groups were to small and the used methods unreliable.
> There must be according the to professor an advantage in being left-
> handed, but it is still unclear what it consist of.
> According to his own theory, despite the many disadvantages of being
> left- handed, left- handed people show a greater deal of creativity and
> other positive aspects.
>
> " And society needs a subgroup of people who are different. "
>
> DM, Steve Connor 09/ 12/ 2004, translated by Kenneth Van Oost.
>
> My comments,
>
> If this is true we should atleast aspect an increase of left- handed
> people amongst members of LA and New York streetgangs !
> Do we possess data !?
>
> If this were to be true, than atleast we will aspect an increase of
> left- handed people amongst the decendents of those kid- soldiers
> of Burundi and Rwanda !
> Will we ever get to those !?
>
> If this is not far away from the truth, we should atleast aspect an
> increase of left- handed people amongst the decendents of those
> who are now wandering the earth !
> Will it ever reach its top !?
>
> Regards,
>
> Kenneth
-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chris Taylor (christ@ebi.ac.uk) HUPO PSI: GPS -- psidev.sf.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ =============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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