Modern Invention in the Home: Everyday Essentials

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DaveC426913 said:
I don't know who he was, but I'll bet he was left-handed.

You see, the reason we shake hands and salute and everything else with the right hand is because that is the hand we have traditionally eaten with - the clean hand.

On the other hand, all flush toilets are operated with the left hand because of the same traditions.
Being right handed, wouldn't you wipe with your right hand? The handle is on the left because after you wipe, the left would be the clean hand. :smile:

I thought the tradition of shaking hands with the right was to prove you were not holding a weapon.
 
Evo said:
Being right handed, wouldn't you wipe with your right hand? The handle is on the left because after you wipe, the left would be the clean hand. :smile:

I thought the tradition of shaking hands with the right was to prove you were not holding a weapon.
That too.

But using one's right hand is not simply a personal preference, it is a societal and logistical convention - because of the swords, the saluting and the hand-shaking.
 
Evo said:
I thought the tradition of shaking hands with the right was to prove you were not holding a weapon.

In Arab countries I believe it is quite the opposite. You shake with your right hand because that is the clean hand. The same with regard to eating or preparing food as well. You take food with your right, because reaching for communal food in the middle ... why that would be considered a matter of hygiene as well. Your companions might take offense.

One might imagine that such a custom would arise in a place without toilet paper - like say a desert?
 
if I remember reading 'right', its because in Europe (roman times/latin) most were right handed and the better you manuevered your hands the more dextrous (dexter 'latin'-right) you were; and, if you were left handed, you were odd (sinister 'latin'-left). --latin for hand is manus --and has many romantic language derivatives -manufacture, manicure, etc.
 
rewebster said:
if I remember reading 'right', its because in Europe (roman times/latin) most were right handed and the better you manuevered your hands the more dextrous (dexter 'latin'-right) you were; and, if you were left handed, you were odd (sinister 'latin'-left). --latin for hand is manus --and has many romantic language derivatives -manufacture, manicure, etc.

Being a particular handedness can of course be an advantage in Roman times if for no other reason than maintaining the fighting integrity of the cohorts thrusting their gladii from behind the gaps in their shields. And that alone might have even served to ensure an evolutionary bias in handedness.

But as to the subject of toilet paper, it's my understanding that one means of Roman army hygiene was the use of a sponge on a stick that may have been carried on a soldier's belt. Actually a pretty effective and eco-efficient solution I would think if running water was about. Less useful in the desert. I suspect adopting such a style today might not be quite so acceptable. (Mercy look at how slide rules hanging from the belt used to be selected against.)