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Re: The Other Human Race
J. Moore (j#d#.moore@canrem.com)
Sun, 22 May 94 14:42:00 -0400
Jf> One of the characters, on noting that Fuzzies are ambidextrous,
Jf> speculates that this is because they are unaware of the placement of
Jf> their hearts and that right-handedness came about from people who fought
Jf> with their hearts turned away from an opponant. He also speculated that
Jf> mankind at a similar state of development was probably ambidextrous as
Jf> well.
Jf> However, the passage (and if any are interested in reading this
Jf> series, this part is very unimportant, practically a throw away) did get
Jf> me thinking about handedness in early hominids. Does anyone know if
Jf> there have been any studies along this line and if so what the
Jf> conclusions were?
Amongst the many studies done of Japanese macaques (snow monkeys) in
that longest on-going series of primate studies was an attempt to
determine handedness (by throwing peanuts to them and seeing which hand
they tended to catch with: left, right, or both). Unfortunately, I
don't have my files of macaque research with me here so I can't tell you
definitely what the conclusions were (I remember a mild tendency toward
right-handedness, but I could be remembering that wrong). In any event,
it would be in an article in the journal "Primates", with (I believe)
the word "handedness" in the title, if you'd like to look it up.
Jim Moore
* Q-Blue 1.0 *
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