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From: ndiamond@watdaisy.UUCP (Norman Diamond)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.followup,net.misc
Subject: Re: Results of handedness survey
Message-ID: <7056@watdaisy.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Mar-85 12:51:36 EST
Article-I.D.: watdaisy.7056
Posted: Tue Mar 12 12:51:36 1985
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Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
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Xref: watmath net.flame:8784 net.followup:4639 net.misc:7517

> Stone Age Tools of ~5000 BC are either usuable by either
> hand, or divided 50/50 for use by either hand, but by the time of
> the Bronze Age (3000-1000 BC) tools were predominately made
> for the right hand....
> A global conspiracy of tool makers seems unlikely.
> -- Laura Creighton

Wars were a little more global, as they occured between tribes.  One could
initially choose either hand for a sword and the other hand for a shield,
but perhaps it made a difference if one's choices matched the opponent's
choices.  The Stone Age would not have had swords, and the Bronze Age
would have had them, n'est-ce pas?  Also, as wars were less global in those
days than now, and provided for slower communication, it seems reasonable
that it took 2000 years for the genetic tendency to become more global.
(That's about the same length of time it takes Canada Post to get a message.)

Anyone know the handedness of native Tahitians and other races that were
insulated from the rest of the world until (relatively) recently?
-- 

   Norman Diamond

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