A brief investigation of other indo-european languages quickly showed me that our (“English”) implications of left and right were equally true there.
The modern English word “left” apparently derives from the Anglo-Saxon lyft, which means weak. Funnily enough, the English word “ambidextrous”, i.e. being able to use both hands equally, actually means having two right hands! The French “gauche” means left, but also awkward, as early as the 13th century ACE. The Spanish “diestro”, on the other hand (what a pun!), means both right and skillful. The Russian The earlier Latin “sinister” means left, but also evil, and ill-omened, as does the even earlier Greek “σκαιὀς.” Going further back, the sanskrit “वाम” (waama) means “left” but also “evil”.
It was clear, then, that, all indo-european cultures are related in their assumptions in left-and right-handedness. I concluded that I needed to look into different language and cultural families.
I quickly decided that it would be too difficult for me to investigate far-eastern culutres and languages, but that it may be feasible to investigate middle-eastern, semitic societies for that purpose. Because our present western culture greatly dominates and influences all others, I decided thsat I had to investigate a culture that greatly predated ours. Finally, I wanted access to many sources. In the end, the conclusion was easy: I went back to the poem that had started it all, and decided to investigate early historic Israelite society (within its broader semitic context), and its cultural descendants down to the Middle Ages at the latest. Beyond that time, I felt that our indo-european values would have too much influence.
Born left-handed 