In Latin the word dexter means on the right hand and sinister means the left hand. In English dexterity is skillfulness while sinister is evil. According to the Holy Qur’an on the day of Judgment those with the record of their deeds in the right hand will go to heaven while those with the record of their deeds in the left hand will go to hell. In the British parliament the ruling party sits on the right of the speaker while the opposition has to take the left seats. In political jargon a rightist is a conservative while a leftist believes in socialism or communism which is looked down upon by the rightists.
In this world majority of people are right handed, i.e. they prefer to work with their right hand and also write with it. There seems to be no biological explanation for it. But there can be a bio-mechanical one.
In most human bodies the heart is slightly to the left of the centerline of the torso and so is the stomach. Thus there is a slightly greater weight on the left side and the left foot. If the balancing system of the human body would not take care of it, most people would tend to lean to their left. Not surprisingly we have a tendency to extend our right hands when ever action is needed as it helps to balance the weight or more accurately the moment about the centre line.
The interesting question is, “why are our hearts and stomachs slightly to the left?” If we apply Darwin’s theory of evolution it would seem that initially equal numbers of people would have had their hearts and stomachs on the right or left or in the centre. May be in those days there were equal numbers of right-handed, left-handed and ambidextrous people. But those who favored the left side had a better chance of survival and outgrew the other types in population until the others became nearly extinct. It really boggles the mind as to what advantage having the heart and stomach on the left would give to a human being as opposed to having them on the right or in the centre.
Any suggestions?
