Why in the old days was it bad to be left handed?

Answer 1

Left-handed people were thought to be influenced by the devil. In the old days, anything 'different' was bad. The majority of the population was right-handed(still is today), so anyone born left-handed was thought to be evil. Being the 'Right-hand' of GOD or sitting on the right side of Jesus was the greatest honor imaginable.

Answer 2

The answer to this question depends on how far you want to go back in history. Most people have the Christian answer to the question, but you can go back further into history and find pagan origins as well. In Slavic folklore, any child born with an "abnormality" (red hair, breach, or left handed), would become a vampire, so its safe to assume that the Christians (like in many other situations) adopted the "evilness" of the southpaws.

However, the history of handedness goes back further than this. When people didn't have the commodity of anti-bacterial soap or even running water, certain actions were given to each hand. "Clean" actions like eating and greeting others were done with the right hand. "Dirty" actions like touching the genitals or anus, were done with the left hand. The assignment of which hand got what was simply due to majority rules. Most people ate and worked with their right hands (remember older civilizations left the writing to the scribes), so the left hand got the dirty work. Think of it as archaic face and butt soap. It just became custom for the left hand to do the dirty work.

The left hand became the "unclean" hand and eventually the hand of Satan. I'm a lefty, and wrote a paper on the subject back in high school.

Answer 3

There's a very practical explanation for this distrust of left-handed people that goes beyond religious superstition, and I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it. It has to do with hygiene. Running water and toilets in the homes have only been around for a little more than 100 years. For thousands of years before this, it was more common for people NOT to have resources to wash their hands after using the bathroom (or ditch, as it were), so to keep the germs from spreading, it became customary to use the non-dominant hand to wipe - which for most people was their left hand. So if someone would reach to shake with their left hand, they immediately offended the person they were greeting.

One more note on left-handed people and the prevalence of superstition to this day. Southpaws aren't considered to be more intelligent, but ARE considered to be more creative. Until a few years ago, I worked at one of the top advertising agencies in the world, and MANY people in the Creative Department were left-handed. Their left-handedness actually helped them get the job!! They didn't have to work so hard to prove their creativity. As a right-hander, I felt discriminated against. (Hmmph!!)

Answer 4

A long time ago it was considered evil to use your left hand. Some people felt that if you used your left hand it meant that you were doing the devil's work. In many languages left meant something evil. For example in latin the word "sinister" means left. And since the ratio for left-handed to right-handed people is 1:4 (the ratio was probably higher than that in the old days since parents/teachers forced children to write with their right hand) people thought that something was wrong with the person. Some famous people were thought to be a bit strange were: Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, and Benjamin Franklin.

Answer 5

Humans tend usually to be right handed because the right side of the body is controlled by the left side of the brain, which is the logical side--the right side being the creative side. The left side of the brain deals with language, and since our lives depend heavily on language, we usually develop this side stronger.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary: "The notion is of the right hand as the 'correct' hand. The O.E. word for this was swiþra, lit. 'stronger.' The history of words for 'right' and 'left' shows that they were used primarily with reference to the hands."

In many cultures, males are the dominate of the genders and therefore are the ones deciding rules, customs, perspective on histories, etc. Since females are viewed as having developed the right side of the brain more and males having developed the left, the corresponding body sides are associated with the two: females = left and males = right.

This is most likely why the "left side" is viewed as hysterical and overemotional, while the "right side" is correct, such as in politics. Certainly this is where the definition of "right" meaning "correct" came from.

Answer 6

The simple answer is that God created Man in the way He wanted man. Most things that were different from the normal were thought to be NOT the way God wanted them, that is, to have been caused by the Devil. Thus left-handed people were thought to be somehow evil. On a related note, the Latin for "right" (as in right-handed) is "dexter," and the Latin for "left" is "sinister." Latin was the language of learning in the Middle Ages, and so anything related to the left hand or the left side was described as "sinister" -- the fact that the word "sinister" looked an awful lot like the word "sin" helped also. This is how the word "sinister" (or "left") became associated with evil, and "dexter" (or "right") became associated with good -- "dexterity," "dextrous," "ambidexterous."

Answer 7

The Inuit people from Alaska or Eskimos (they don't like to be called that way) used to beleive that every one left handed was a sorcerer.

In some biblical scriptures it says that the evil will be sitting at the left hand of God, while the righteous sit at the right hand of God, during the last Judgement.

In Muslim countries the left hand is used for wiping oneself after defecation, while the right hand is used for eating, drinking or a handshake.

Lots of famous people are left handed, both Prince Charles of Wales and his son Prince William of Wales are left handed, former president Bush was left handed, Clinton too.

Michelangelo, Picasso, Da Vinci, Kurt Cobain, Jimmy Hendrix, Sandy Koufax, were left handed.

Matt Groening creator of The Simpsons is also left handed.

Jack the Ripper is thought to had been left handed.

Answer 8

Association with Devilry Being Left Handed has, for some reason, become associated with devilry and bad luck. Superstitions that differentiate between left and right always consider the left to be bad, unfortunate, cursed, poisonous and satanic.

Devil has been associated with the left hand in various ways and is normally portrayed as being left-handed in pictures and other images

Answer 9

WOW i did not know any of this. Im left handed and when ppl notice they always say wow like they believe that left handed ppl are supposed to be smarter than average. I wish I could boast that, but nah, im just left handed.

I did see on Oprah that its determined in the womb whether you will be left handed or not by your brain formation, now thats interesting.

Answer 10

Mostly from religion. It was considered "bad" to be left-handed because not a whole lot of people were left-handed. My grandmother was born left-handed but now she only uses her right hand. She's Catholic and went to Catholic school. They force you to use your right hand until you don't use your left hand again. It was different, and it was bad to be different. They also thought that those who used their left hand were "influenced by the devil" and whatnot. Something about Jesus being on the right side of God... =/