The Stigma of Being Left-Handed

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Modern science cannot precisely describe what causes human preferentially to use one hand over the other, or why human poplulations are biased toward right-hand use rather hand left-hand use.

Yet the fact remains that in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to be left-handed was not a good thing. 

The roots may lie in part with the evolution of hand-to-hand combat and weaponry.

Acceptance of the left side as the "weak" or "female" side, and as the reponsitory of the heart, may have catalyzed the use of the shield to protect that side.  This meant the sword was wielded in the right hand, and amour was constructed to accommodate the right-handed fighter.

Feudalism supported right-handed acceptability placing the person who sat to the king's right as his trusted right-hand man; to the left, perhaps a bastard son.

Right equaled luck.  People entered buildings with "their right foot forward."  If your right palm itched you would receive money; if on the left, you would lose money.  The evil eye was said to be the left one, with talismans, charms, and amulets worn on the left for protection.  Wedding rings were worn on the left, a supposed connection to the heart that would bind women to their husbands and deter spirits.

In Western Europe, a left-hander was at a distinct disadvantage, labeled "sinistral", from the Latin "sinister" meaning "left."  But nowhere were the left-handed demonized as strongly as in the Bible, where preferred handedness and side are mentioned over 1,000 times. Exaltation for the right dominant hand was upheld in that right-handers landed on the "right" side of God and righteousness, with left-hander relegated to the dark side with the Devil.

The left-handed were easy prey during Europe's fifteenth through seventeenth century witchcraft persecutions and the Church's Inquisition of suspected heretics.  Left-handedness could mean demonic possession, whereas moles and other blemishes on the body's left were used as identifying marks of traffic with the Devil, cause for conviction and execution.  The medieval church accused those who danced widdershins (circumambulating left) or with the backs facing the inside of a circle, of heresy.  Countless were burned alive.

Interestingly, doctor and author Thomas Browne of Norwich, England, whose testimony condemned two women accused of witchcraft, debunked the left-handed fallacy.  He wrote in 1648 that "many are sinistrously disposed and go through life left-handed."  Browne was the first to theorize that handedness was a matter of cerebral dominance controlled by the opposite side of the brain.

 

taken from Renaissance Magazine