Why four out
of five last American Presidents are left-handed?
The problem of handedness is
mysterious and complicated. For example, left-handedness is
correlated with occupation. Its proportion is increased
among artists (actors, painters, and architects), the best
tennis players, boxers, fencers, baseball players and
factory workers. A high prevalence of left-handedness has
been revealed in geniuses, as well as in alcoholics,
imbeciles, and illiterates. Alexander of Macedonia, Julius
Caesar, Charle the Great, Napoleon, Jeanne d’Arc, Benjamin
Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Picasso,
Chaplin, Maxwell, Poincare, Pavlov, Lewis Carroll, several
famous comic actors, four out of five last presidents of the
United States (R. Reagan, G. H. Bush, B. Clinton and B. Obama),
and many other outstanding people were or are left-handed.
Left-handedness also depends on sex: in newborn boys, its
prevalence is 1.5 to 8 times higher than in newborn girls.
None of the existing theories
pays attention to the adaptive importance of handedness;
therefore, none of them can explain the whole phenomenon.
The new theory of
left-handedness, developed in 1996 by V. Geodakyan, can be
an answer. This theory was presented on 14th
International Anthropological Congress (Williamsburg,
Virginia, July-August 1998).
The theory considers
left-handedness as a new form of informational contact of
population with the environment and is closely related to
previously developed Evolutionary Theory of Sex (ETS).
“Sex-asymmetry” isomorphism
infers that left-handedness must be analogous (similar or
related) to one sex, and right-handedness, to the other.
Left-handedness varies considerably, is closely related to
the environment, determines low fitness under the existing
conditions, and is directed to the future; its prevalence is
higher in newborn boys and decreases with age. These and
some other characteristics of left-handedness suggest that
left-handed individuals constitute the operative subsystem
of lateral differentiation and are analogous to males.
Conversely, right-handed individuals constitute the
conservative subsystem (an original, basic, or regular
state) and are analogous to females.
Our ancestors were completely
symmetrical spherical forms. During the evolution process
these forms first developed the up – down asymmetry as
adaptation to gravity. Second asymmetry was front – back
asymmetry exploiting the advantage of active locomotion,
with receptors and the brain located at the front of the
body. Asynchronous evolution creates the left – right
asymmetry ensuring the possibility of testing the
innovations on the operative subsystem.
New functions appear more
frequently in the right organ, and left organ keeps an old
function.
These theories have unique
explaining and predicting ability. For example, according to
ETS females should have varicose more frequently than men.
And left-handedness theory predicts that left leg should be
altered more frequently and more severe. Contrary, migraine
targets predominantly men and usually the right leg. All
these predictions agree with the facts.
S. Geodakyan
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