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Deficit or creativity: Cesare Lombroso, Robert Hertz, and the meanings of left-handedness

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 18; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1357650x.2012.697171

1464-0678

Howard I. Kushner,

Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience

Abstract In the first decade of the twentieth century two influential researchers attempted to explain the origin and impact of left-handedness in human history. The first, the Turin physician Cesare Lombroso, often referred to as the father of modern criminology, was nearing the end of his long distinguished career. Lombroso tied left-handedness to criminality, insanity, and feeble mindedness. According to Lombroso, these groups shared biological regressions to primitive mentalities that could not be reversed by education or training. The second, French sociologist Robert Hertz, was at the beginning of a career cut short by his death in combat during the First World War. Hertz challenged Lombroso's claims, insisting that the predominance of right-handedness, whatever its biological substrate, was ultimately a cultural artefact driven by a primitive human urge to make sense of the world by dividing it into binary oppositions in which the right was viewed as sacred and the left as profane. Ending discrimination against left-handedness would, according to Hertz, unleash access to both hands and thus both hemispheres. The results, he insisted, would allow repressed talents and creativity to flourish. The conflicting views of Lombroso and Hertz have informed investigations of the causes and consequences of left-handedness until today. While the language of the debate has been reframed in current scientific discourses, left-handedness continues to be portrayed in the contradictory ways first elaborated by Lombroso and Hertz more than a century ago as either the cause of a variety of learning disabilities or as the key that can unlock creativity and talent. The debate also exposed the extent to which other cultural concerns, particularly anti-Semitism, informed theories of handedness. Keywords: Cesare LombrosoRobert HertzLeft-handednessanti-SemitismCriminologyAnthropologyHistory Acknowledgments The author thanks Lauren J. Harris and Marjorie Lorch for their comments and suggestions and Carol R. Kushner for her editorial assistance. Notes 1Lombroso's explication of atavism evolved over time and, according to his recent English language translators, his views on the causes of criminality were complex and included the recognition of environmental forces along with and sometimes separate from heritable factors (Gibson & Rafter, Citation2006). 2Spurred on by Tarde, French theorists engaged in a sustained debate with Lombroso and his Italian colleagues at a series of international meetings in the 1880s. According to historian Robert Nye, "the Paris congress of 1889 was the occasion of a stunning public reversal in the fortunes of the Lombrosian theories" (Nye, Citation1976, p. 341). Lombroso's work was likened to Gall's phrenology, and his methods and measurements were ridiculed. 3To some extent the disputes over the validity of Lombroso's criminology reflected national rivalries and, according to Gibson and Rafter, "recent scholarship has begun to reevaluate the place of Lombroso in a variety of contexts, including the histories of criminology, science, race, and sexuality" (Gibson & Rafter, Citation2006, pp. 4–5; see also Gibson, 2004). 4LeBon found this condition more common in "savages" and women, as evident from their smaller skull size: "Whilst the average size of the skulls of male Parisians places them among the largest known skulls, the average size of those of female Parisians places them among the very small skulls observed, very much below those of Chinese women and scarcely above those of the women of New Caledonia" (LeBon, 1881/Citation1988, p. 154). Le Bon's influence on his contemporaries was enormous. For instance, Émile Durkheim cited LeBon's claims, quoted above, as evidence for the intellectual inferiority of women (Durkheim, Citation1984, pp. 20–21; see also Kushner, Citation2009, pp. 32–33). 5Degeneration was, Pick notes, "a shifting term produced, inflicted, refined, and reconstituted in the movement between human sciences, fictional narratives and socio-political commentaries" (Pick, Citation1989, p. 7). 6Lombroso's evolutionary views were greatly influenced by the Italian philosopher Gianbattista Vico (1668–1744) (Frigessi, Citation1995; Villa, Citation1985). According to Vico, the historical development of humanity was progressive. Early humans had no society or spoken or written language. The only difference from "pure" animals and early humans, according to Vico, was the presence of a familial structure and burial rituals for the dead (Vico, Citation1968). Building on Vico, Lombroso's evolution assumed a progressive movement from the epoch of Black races, to Yellow races, and finally to the White race. His characteristics of each race corresponded with those of Vico: the black races were instinctive and superstitious, the yellow were organised in strictly aristocratic societies, while white races were characterised by democracy and reason. Lombroso's typological approach included the assumption that types remained immutable once they were formed. Lombroso's modified evolutionary theory is best described as what current evolutionary biologists have labelled "constitutional medicine" or holism (Zampieri, Citation2009, for Lombroso see p. 337) constitutional medicine. For an overview of constitutional medicine see Tracy, Citation1992. I thank Professor Fabio Zampieri, University of Padua, for having alerted me to Vico's influence on Lombroso's evolutionary thinking and for sharing his current work on Lombroso. 7Also, and with no empirical support, there is the claim by Coren and Halpern that left-handers on average have died substantially younger than right-handers (Coren & Halpern, Citation1991; Halpern & Coren, Citation1988, Citation1991). For a comprehensive critique of these studies see Harris, Citation1993. 8For a recent discussion of the connection between left-handedness and creativity see Lindell, Citation2011. 9Although it has become conventional for anthropologists to express deference to Hertz's contributions, most who investigated origins and practices associated with handedness rejected Hertz's specific conclusions that these resulted from diametrical opposition of the sacred and profane cultural. For China see Granet (Citation1973, p. 44, originally published in 1933); for the Toradja of Indonesia see Kruyt (Citation1973, esp. pp. 74–75, originally published in 1941); for the Mapuche of Chile see Faron (Citation1973, pp.189–191, originally published in 1962), and for the Islamic Arab world see Chelhod (Citation1973, pp. 241, 254–255, originally published in 1964). 10Like Lombroso, Hertz was born into a prominent Jewish family. Born in France, he was the son of a German immigrant father and a British/American mother. 11Hertz's assertion was premature (Kushner, Citation2011b, 2012). 12Central to Durkheim's project was the role of social cohesion as protective against the modern destabilising forces of alienation and individualism (Kushner, Citation2009; Kushner & Sterk, Citation2005) Hertz's essay could be read as potentially subversive of Durkheim's sociology, which may explain why Durkheim had so little to say about it. Mauss would later suggest that Hertz's focus on ritual and the sacred was too restrictive and should have included the role of mythology and thought in religious systems (Parkin, Citation1996, p. 66). 13For a sample of the lecture presented at the Society's meetings at this time see Lancet, 1904. 14Alice, writes Parkin, "suggests that only subsequently did he [Hertz] see in it [handedness] a 'sociological problem'" (1996, p. 3). 15See footnote 6 for a fuller discussion of Lombroso's constitutional medicine. See also Zampieri, Citation2009, p. 337.