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The Mistreatment Of Left-Handeded People

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When you hear the word “sinistra”, what word does it sound close to? It sounds closely to the word “sinister” and with that you think sinistra means dark or evil. However, sinistra’s meaning has no thing to do with darkness or evil; it is Latin for left or left handed. With this misunderstanding of the word sinistra and other reasons, left-handed people faced years of social and religious oppression. Hello, I’m Josh Haxton a lefty and I have always been curious about the history of left handers. Through my research, I was able to end by curiosity. Today I’m going to inform you of the history of left-handedness and famous left-handed people in history.
Left-Handedness is defined as having the left hand more dominant or effective than the right. However the dominant use of the left hand was not acceptable for many centuries. In the article "Right, Left, Right, Wrong!”, Luke Mastin describes that from the 13th century till the 20th century, left-handed faced inhumane treatment. The beginning of this maltreatment started in the 13th century when the Catholic Church rose to power. During this time, books and paintings began to damage left-handed people’s reputation. In the book “The Puzzle of Left-Handedness” Rik Smits states that one of things that tarnished their reputation, was European art depicting the Devil and his accomplices as left-handed. As a result, left handers soon became seen as people in league with the Devil. As centuries passed the tension between right handers and left handers stayed the same until the 15th century and 16th century. During this period, the Inquisition, a period of suppression against those that believed unpopular …show more content…

One of the earliest and most famous lefty was Leonardo da Vinci. He most famous for his surviving paintings, “The Last Supper” and the “Mona Lisa”. Each of these paintings show the legacy that da Vinci left

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