hanced in such societies. Dr Faurie and Dr Raymond set out to test this hypothesis. […]
By trawling the literature, checking with police departments, and even going out into the field and asking people, the two researchers found that the proportion of left-handers in a traditional society is, indeed, correlated with its homicide rate. One of the highest proportions of left-handers, for example, was found among the Yanomamo of South America. Raiding and warfare are central to Yanomamo culture. The murder rate is 4 per 1,000 inhabitants per year (compared with, for example, 0.068 in New York). And, according to Dr Faurie and Dr Raymond, 22.6% of Yanomamo are left-handed. In contrast, Dioula-speaking people of Burkina Faso in West Africa are virtual pacifists. There are only 0.013 murders per 1,000 inhabitants among them and only 3.4% of the population is left-handed.
While there is no suggestion that left-handed people are more violent than the right-handed, it looks as though they are more successfully violent. Perhaps that helps to explain the double meaning of the word “sinister”.
Are there any activities in the modern world where handedness might have a comparable effect? What about driving? If my theory is correct that driving on the left is natural for right-handers, then we should see higher accident rates for left-handers in those countries that drive on the left, and vice versa. Several millennia down the line and there’ll be no British or Japanese left-handers at all. Will anyone miss them, I wonder?
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