Title: The puzzle of left-handedness /
Authors: Smits, Rik.; Smits, Rik.; Smits, Rik, 1953-; Smits, Rik, 1953-
Publisher: Reaktion Books,
Year: 2011
Subjects: Left- and right-handedness; Functional Laterality; Hand
Abstract: Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama have both signed bills into law with their left hands. And being left-handed certainly did not hold back the artistic achievements of Michelangelo or Raphael. And the dexterous guitar playing of Jimmi Hendrix may only have been aided by his southpaw tendencies. Left-handedness, in fact, would appear to be no big deal. Yet throughout history, it has been associated with clumsiness and generally dubious personality traits like untrustworthiness and insincerity. Even the Latin word for left, sinister, has ominous connotations. In The Puzzle of Left-handedness, Rik Smits uncovers why history has been so unkind to our lefthanded forebears. He carefully puts together the pieces of the puzzle, presenting an array of historical anecdotes, strange superstitions, and weird wives' tales. Smits explains how left-handedness continues to be associated with maladies of all kinds, including mental retardation, alcoholism, asthma, hay fever, homosexuality, cancer, diabetes, insomnia, depression, and criminality. Even in the enlightened twenty-first century, left-handedness still meets with opposition--including from one prominent psychologist who equates it with infantile negativism, similar to a toddler's refusal to eat what's on his plate, and another who claims that left-handed people have average lifespans that are nine years shorter than those who favor the right hand. As Smits reminds us, such speculation is backed by little factual evidence, and the arguments presented by proponents of right-handedness tend to be humorously absurd. The Puzzle of Left-handedness is an enlightening, engaging, and entertaining odyssey through the puzzles and paradoxes, theories and myths, of left-handed lore. Chock full of facts and fiction, it's a book to be read with both hands. -- Book Description.
Contents: Malice and misunderstanding -- The left-handed Picador -- Opposites and contradictions -- Taboos, sex and handicrafts -- Lovers of the left -- Magic and superstition -- The true nature of left and right -- Strange creatures in the uncanny valley -- Witchcraft and pogroms -- Factionalism -- The ideal warrior -- The polymorphism of one-sidedness -- The heart of the matter -- The power of small differences -- How Freud found his right side and Pooh didn't -- Why a running rabbit doesn't tear itself apart -- Tintin's law -- Dead men and voluptuous women -- Mary's little troublemaker and other portraits -- Little Johnny cries to the left, Little Johnny smiles to the left -- The circle dance of the alphabet -- The weight of the liver -- The morbid views of Abram Blau -- Thwacking and hurling -- Thinking about brains -- Animal crackers -- Other asymmetries and preferences -- Tallying up -- Genetic left-handedness -- Hormonal left-handedness -- How even detrimental characteristics can survive -- Left-handers as undercover twins -- The consequences: contrary, perverse and sick -- Two left hands: the Ford scale -- The things that things make us do -- Writing and other useful handiwork -- The myth of high left-handed mortality -- Creative, musical, brilliant and famous!