Dear Jinan,
You ask, “Isn't ambidexterity the ability to use both hands quite well? In traditional societies people used both their hands for most of the activities - craft, farming, etc., in fact their whole body. I have seen carpenters using their legs to hold wood and the hands for other work. This is done in most things they do and naturally both hands gets used to action.”
This is not ambidexterity.
Most artists, designers, musicians, and craftsmen use both hands quite well. So do most athletes, and a great many people engaged in physical work such as cooking, and physical work linked to such high-level intellectual activities as surgery, dentistry, electronics, or computer programming.
Using both hands well is not ambidexterity. Even though one can use both hands and the rest of the body well, most people are either left-handed or right-handed.
Ambidextrous people are able to use both hands equally well for nearly all tasks. This includes writing and drawing.
Several talented scientists and inventors were said to have been ambidextrous, including Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Nicola Tesla. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also ambidextrous.
If you intended to say that most people in traditional cultures and pre-literate cultures use their hands and bodies skillfully, I’d agree. The predominant vocations and professions of these societies require bodily work and physical skill. People who work in physical professions and crafts use their bodies. Emphasis and practice should lead to skill.
Those who develop these skills at a high level are obviously better than those who work in different ways. My father has been an athlete and dancer all his life – I have not been as active. He remains more active and skillful in his 90s than I am in my 60s.
But most of these people are either right-handed or left-handed. They have a dominant side, a hand that they favor, and an orientation toward that hand.
True ambidexterity is probably as rare in traditional and preliterate societies as in literate societies.
Best regards,
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 Sheji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Elsevier in Cooperation with Tongji University | Launching in 2015
University Distinguished Professor | Swinburne University of Technology ||| Guest Professor | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| Adjunct Professor | School of Creative Arts | James Cook University | Townsville, Australia
Email [log in to unmask] | Academia http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn
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