I was watching Jarhead yesterday and in one scene the jarheads approached a roaming group of Kuwaitis and one of the soldiers raised his left hand to them (as if in greeting or to say 'Avast!'). Anyway, he was quickly reproached by his fellow because (paraphrase): 'That's an insult; they wipe their asses with their left hand'. I'm curious to see how many members of our enlightened scientific community have a left/right hand bias, not just in the loo, but in life in general. For example, my aunt, even when her right hand is busily occupied, refuses to shake hands with a friend until her hand is freed up. Where we come from, food is only eaten with the right hand, things are exchanged only with the right, we shake hands with the right, and we wipe with the left. Shaking hands with my left doesn't even feel normal to me. I'm not sure if most Americans share these idiosyncracies but my aunt certainly scorns them for being so uncultured in this respect. So, anyone have any anthropological clues as to where this bias stems from and whether there are/have been any societies recorded as having a left-hand bias?
I'm right-handed with many tasks, including the one you mentioned. I was never taught to be that way, or told that was the right way. I just am right-handed. However, I'm left-handed when I'm tying my shoes, meaning my right hand holds down the strings while my left hand does the tying. And I use either hand randomly when masturbating. It's an undenyable fact that the majority of people you will talk to have a right-hand bias. That's not the case where I am. I haven't noticed any unspoken rules that this hand is used for this and that, and etc. As is expected. Not because you're supposed to use your right, per se, but because you usually only use your right. Lawl at your aunt's high-nose attitude. I think humans in general have been right-handed since we first popped up. There's a thread about all this somewhere in another subforum.
Which hand do I wipe with? the third one...down there...off that pritty girl's face. But this happens not in the case you described.
Afterwards I wiped my tail with a hen, with a pullet, with a calf's skin, with a hare, with a pigeon, with a cormorant, with an attorney's bag, with a montero, with a coif, with a falconer's lure. But, to conclude, I say and maintain, that of all torcheculs, arsewisps, bumfodders, tail-napkins, bunghole cleansers, and wipe-breeches, there is none in the world comparable to the neck of a goose, that is well downed, if you hold her head betwixt your legs. And believe me therein upon mine honour, for you will thereby feel in your nockhole a most wonderful pleasure, both in regard of the softness of the said down and of the temporate heat of the goose, which is easily communicated to the bum-gut and the rest the inwards, in so far as to come even to the regions of the heart and brains.
For the visionaries who think this thread is about vulgarity, it's actually about cultural attitudes. As I already made clear, the topic title/poll was merely inspired by something I saw and I even made it explicitly clear that this was to be a discussion on dominance of the right hand in social interaction. Oh well, close the post. It's too bad you couldn't read my explanation. This place is going down.
My question is... what is so special about the right hand? I write with my right hand, drive with my left hand, smoke with my left hand, switch hands when I squeeze triggers, brush my teeth with my left hand... I guess you could say I am ambidexturous.
