And Horns on the Toads Page: 73
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SOUTHPAWS, PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL SCIENCE
left to right, so that they read on a situation map as they would
normally be printed in an alphabet. Our military world is, and
always has been, a right-handed world.
Though the beginning of this evolutionary process of racial
dextrality was perhaps accidental, once the preference was
established it was so cumulative as to become a tradition.
Infants learned to use right-handed tools by imitation, and
adults taught their use by formal precept and example. More
important, however, was the social pressure upon the individual
to conform to the resulting code of human conduct and cultural
law evolving from dextrality. The right became the normal,
good; the left became the abnormal, bad.
The very philology of laterality itself is a mirror of the con-
comitant prejudice against the left-handed and for the right-
handed. The Latin laius meant literally on the left side. Figur-
atively it meant awkward, foolish, or stupid when applied to
a person; inconvenient when applied to a time. The Latin sinis-
ter meant literally on the left hand; figuratively it connoted
unlucky, adverse, injurious, awkward, pernicious. The English
borrowing retained the pejoration. The Latin rectus meant
literally to the right side; figuratively it meant straightforward,
honest, desirable. English derivatives retain the figurative amel-
ioration. Latin dexter meant literally right or on the right; fig-
uratively it meant skilful. Again the English derivatives retained
the ameliorations. A dextrous man is skilful. A person equally
skilful with both hands is not ambisinister, but instead ambi-
dextrous. French gauche translates simply left or to the left, but
in English a gauche person is very clumsy. French adroit trans-
lates simply as right or to the right; but in English an adroit
person is straightforward, honest, admirable, skilful. No one
ever offers advice to go left down the middle, and no one
ever says that left here is the exact spot. Instead, it is always
"Go right down the middle" and "Right here is the exact spot."
Lord Chesterfield wrote, in 1749, to his son, "An awkward
address, ungraceful attitudes and actions, and a certain left-73
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And Horns on the Toads (Book)
Volume of folk stories and tall tales about the horned toad and other Texas folklore. The index begins on page 235.
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Boatright, Mody Coggin. And Horns on the Toads, book, 1959; Dallas, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38856/m1/86/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.