The Lopsided Ape: Evolution of the Generative Mind

Most people are right-handed, though with a substantial minority of left-handers: this is such a familiar feature of human existence that we rarely think about it at all (especially if we are right-handed), and now that schools no longer try to force left-handers to write with the right hand, the psychological and emotional problems that this once produced have become a distant memory. Michael Corballis, however, thinks about handedness a great deal, and has devoted a large part of his career as a professor of psychology to studying it. Because we don't think about it much at all, we don't usually notice that bias towards right-handness is a specifically human characteristic. Although animals may prefer to do some actions with one foot rather than the other, they show no consistent bias. To find a comparable case we need to go as far afield as to parrots, which generally prefer to pick up bits of food with their left feet, while standing on their right. I usually regard discussion left-brain and right-brain specialization as the sort of science that belongs in popular magazines, to be read, perhaps, while waiting for a dental appointment, but otherwise to be treated with the same disdain as signs of the zodiac. Unlike signs of the zodiac, however, lateral specialization of the brain has a perfectly serious aspect, and Corballis makes a strong case that strong handedness in humans is related to an apparently quite different special characteristic of humans, their capacity for language.

This is a wonderful book and a really stimulating read. It's beautifully written and researched ( hundreds of references) and tells the story of the evolution of language from the time of its appearance among the earliest humans.It shows how the overwhelming importance of speech has moulded the brain and it draws on evidence from the fossil record, DNA analysis, phases of reaching maturity, anatomy, experimental evidence and the greater or lesser role that genes play with respect to culture and learning.The book has changed my way of looking at these things.