Left Hand: History With Evil And Devil

Ancient Celts celebrated left-handedness because they saw the combat benefit. The Kerr familyof Scotland valued this trait. It gave Sir Andrew Kerr an edge in a sword fight around 1513. The Kerrs built their castle specifically for left-hand use.The Kerrs built their castleThe Ancient Celts valued left-hand use.

Kerr taught his sons and armed guards to hold their swords.They held their swords.and axes in their left hands because he thought it gave them an advantage against enemies.

Early Rome used augury to read messages from the gods based on bird movements.Augures, or priests, gave meaning to which way birds flew.Augures assigned importance to the direction birds flew.

Greek culture saw birds flying right as good signs from the gods. Romans believed the opposite. Roman augures marked templums, orsacred spaces in the sky.If a bird flew into the templum from the left, the gods approved. Flying from the right or behind showed disapproval.

In Inca culture, left-handedness meant good deeds.Left-handedness was associated with good deeds.Inca chief Lloque Yupanqui means "left-handedness." People admired him for his goodness.

Ancient Maya viewed left-handedness favorably. The Maya word for left isdziic, which comes fromdziicilThis means "soldier" or "brave."

The left has historically been associated with femininity and inferiority.linked to femininity., which later stood for weakness or passivity. Right-handedness, which is more common and dominant, became linked to masculine traits showing power. Ancient Greece linked the right side to strength and virtue.

Many religions, including Hinduism, Jewish Kabbalah, and Christianity, make the same link between gender and handedness.

The Bible makes moral links to both left and right sides. Jesus sat at God's right hand, while theThe Bible associates the right with being blessed.was said to sit on the left.

In the Book of Matthew, Jesus, in aThe Bible uses a shepherd metaphor.allows only those to his right side into heaven upon his return to Earth:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All nations will gather before him, and he will separate people like a shepherd separates sheep from goats. He places the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will tell those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

During the Spanish Inquisition, left-handedness was sometimes slain.linked to witchcraftand not practicing Catholicism. Lefties were condemnedand sometimes killed.The Inquisition sometimes killed left-handed people.

The Torah favors the right over the leftseveral times. For example, Shlomo says, "A wise man’s heart is at his right, but a fool’s heart is at his left." Schlomo also sits his mother, Batsheva, to his right.Anti-lefty sentiment appears in Jewish texts. For example, Shlomo says, "A wise man’s heart is at his right, but a fool’s heart is at his left." Schlomo also seats Batsheva, his mother, to the right of him.

Se’mol (שְׂמֹאול) in Hebrew means "Left side., and it'sderived from Samael.The Talmud states Samael, who became Satan, sits on God's left-hand side. Per the Talmud, Samael, who became Satan, sits on God's left-hand side.

Several African cultures held stigmas against the left. The Zulu people punished children.The Zulu people punished children.The Zulu people punished children who were left-handed by dipping the left hand into scalding hot water, making it unusable.

African communities along the Niger River shared these biases. Women had to cook with their right hand. Using the left hand for cooking brought accusations of witchcraft or poisoning the food.

TheThe Maori once believedthe right side of the body was life; the left was the opposite. Women weaving ceremonial cloths used their right hands. They thought using the left hand would curse the cloth. A woman using her left hand could face death.

Left-handedness was cited asproof of being a witch.During the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, left-handedness was cited as proof of being a witch. Mary Barker, at least one woman, was burned partly because she preferred her left hand. The court used this trait as evidence against Barker as a witch.

Mary Barker of Andover examined and confessed. After several questions and negative answers, she finally admitted Goody Johnson made her a witch. Sometime last summer, she made a red mark in the devil's book with the forefinger of her left hand. The Devil would have her hurt Martha Sprague, Rose Foster, and Abigail Martin, which she did on Saturday and Sabbath last. She said she took less than a quarter of an hour coming from Andover to Salem.

Around the 1950s, Abram Blau, a major American psychoanalyst, classified left-handers as having emotional issues.Left-handednesscorrelated with perversity and obstinacy. Blau believed left-handers grew up rigid and sometimes obsessed with cleanliness.

British psychologist Cyril Burt asserted that left-handed people grew up "stubborn" and "awkward."

School teachers, especially Catholic ones, punished students.Teachers punished students physically and mentally for being left-handed. Although using the left hand became more accepted, it stayed linked to the Devil and even Communism.Teachers punished students physically and mentally for being left-handed. Although using the left hand became more accepted, it stayed linked to the Devil and even Communism.

Across the Soviet Bloc, countries passed laws.Countries passed laws to limit citizens' use of their left hands well into the 1970s.Countries passed laws to limit citizens' use of their left hands well into the 1970s. Elsewhere in Europe, governments required all school writing use the right hand.

The strictest laws against lefties happened in Albania; there, being left-handed was completely banned.

Companies realized they could market to left-handers.Companies eventually realized they could market to left-handers.Companies realized that because left-handed people could not use some right-handed products, like scissors, they could make money by creating items for left-handers. William Gruby started Anything Left-Handed, Ltd. in 1968, selling left-handed versions of things like kitchen appliances and watches.