Lefties

Wrong and wrong?
In ancient Rome, Lefty called "evil» (sinister), the ancient Germans called them "clumsy" and the medieval church officials considered left-handedness as a sure sign of addiction to witchcraft and often because of this left-handed burned during the Inquisition. In Russia lefties forbidden to testify in court. It was believed that the devil himself was left-handed.

In India, so far complied with "manual" tradition: the right hand of "suitable" for the implementation of the "pure" functions (eating, shaking hands, and others.), And the left - for the purposes of personal hygiene. Hence the custom of not serving food or gifts alone with his left hand. In such cases, the use or only the right hand or with both hands, and the left is always below the right.

"Rightness" righties still emphasized in the language. For example, in Russian: same root to the word "right" is the word "truth", "right", "fair", "right", as well as in the German recht (right) and richtig (right) - the same root.

In the French word droit used for the "right" and "right". English right - also represents both concepts, with the word left-handed translated not only as "left-handed", but as "clumsy" or "insincere" and Italian mancino («lefty", "left") and all "dishonest" "perfidious».

The history of these words and meanings in different languages ​​dates back to ancient times, when all that man could not understand the country in general had a negative connotation. Nevertheless, there are still people who experience panic fear of left-handers. They are called sinistrofobami.

Left steering
Meanwhile, clumsiness left-handed people due to the fact that the world is simply not designed for them. Many things - from scissors, cameras and computers to sewing machines, machines and turnstiles in the subway - "enchanted" by right-handed people.

Not surprisingly, the most right-handed left-hander receive work-related injuries. Back in 1991 there were a lot of left-handed people. In addition, a lot of left-handers are more common diseases of the musculoskeletal system, because the tools and equipment being developed for those who has better right hand medportal.ru reports with reference to the Air Force.

But there is a "leftism" and its advantages. Forced to adapt to the "right-handed" world, the left-hander on the need to develop both hands, while right-handers are usually the same. That is why many left-handers have an advantage and achieve significant success in some sports. Left-handed tennis, fencers, boxers, wrestlers do not like - to compete with them uncomfortable.

However, in recent years the world has begun to appear more and more specialist shops for left-handed or departments in retail stores where you can buy everything for lefties - from knives and forks to a set of golf course, musical instruments and computer accessories.

Took a pen in his right hand ...
At the same time, until recently, in many countries it was decided to retrain lefties. This "need" arose with the advent of mass learning to write, so the main institution "pereruchivaniya" became a school.

The situation was no better at home when children are left-handed even tied his left hand to the body or put on her mittens to wean a child to use it.

Meanwhile, as noted by psychologists, forced retraining child left-handed, especially if it is "pronounced" lefty causes psychological stress, which can lead to serious neurological disorder. This provokes not only a violation of a psychic, but also in speech development, and generally lowers school performance. Especially if children retrained without the use of special methods of learning to write left-handed children. Now the practice of "re-training" in schools is practically no.

From right to left
By the way, after the failure of the system relearning lefties in many countries, their number has considerably increased. For example, in 1930 in the UK, there were about 3% of left-handers in the 1950s, this figure rose to 5%, and now there is a left-handed one in ten.

Generally the proportion lefthanded in different countries varies several times, but the average is considered, it is approximately 10%. However, a study of Australian scientists has shown that left-handers are actually larger than previously thought.

As the newspaper "Morning", Sarah Medlend from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research conducted an extensive analysis of the statistics of several thousand people from 32 countries, not only asked the question of whether they are left-handed or right-handed, but also offered to remember which hand they are more likely to use when throwing ball, click on the button in the elevator, unscrew the cap from the banks, brush their teeth, and so on. d.

It was found that among those who called themselves the right-handed - that is used when writing the right hand - there were 5% of those in other activities enjoyed the left.

Famous left-hander
Scientists emphasize that left-handedness - not a disadvantage, as a special variant of normal development, which is now assumed to be inherited. This quality does not have any relation to ascribe to him "demonism" or more "modern" look at it as a sign of genius.

Although there are a lot of left-handers among celebrities. For left-handers rank Aristotle, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton. Left-handed were Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe. The left hand leads Paul McCartney, George Michael, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Whoopi Goldberg, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Bill Gates. Left-handed was a Russian writer Nikolai Leskov wrote in the 19th century, the famous story of Lefty savvy flea.

Were left-handed Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Napoleon, Winston Churchill, Admiral Horatio Nelson, Queen Victoria, Peter I, Ronald Reagan. Left-handedness unites former US presidents Bill Clinton and George HW Bush with former Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Lefty recognized and Russian President Vladimir Putin - because of the fact that he wears a watch on his right hand. But Putin himself has dispelled this myth, explaining that the watch he wears so out of habit. Because the "crown" of hours, if worn on the left hand rubs. "It hurts," - he said.