Handedness in gestural and manipulative actions in male hunter‐gatherer Aka pygmies from Central African Republic

Robira, Benjamin; Pouydebat, Emmanuelle; Meulman, Ellen; Aubaile, Françoise; Breuer, Thomas; Masi, Shelly

doi:10.1002/ajpa.23435

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…Previous studies on the subject of lateralization in humans (past and modern) are not entirely on agreement on what expectations might be. Modern populations exhibit footedness (Gabbard 1996;Gentry & Gabbard 1995) and handedness (Stock et al 2013) but extant hunter-gatherers only exhibit handedness during activities involving complex tasks (Cavanagh et al 2016;Hurtado et al 1985;Robira et al 2018) and footedness has not been studied. Even though hunter-gatherers have been studied in terms of gait and locomotion (Fredericks et al 2015;Hatala et al 2013Pontzer, 2014Lieberman et al 2010;Niemitz 2010;Pontzer et al 2014), studies on modern populations indicate that the influence of walking gait on footedness is not significant (Zverev 2006).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, we were interested in whether the carpal bones reflected the shared load model (Hamlin 2001) or if it reflected a partially shared load with greater female burden (Wentz 2006;Wentz 2010). We used an index variable for four carpal bones to examine differences in activity (shared workload or sex-based division of labor) (Cavanagh et al 2016;Robira et al 2018). Again, the tests were underpowered due to small sample sizes and female samples were smaller than male samples.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early Holocene morphological variation in hunter-gatherer hands and feet

Hoover

Berbesque

2018

Preprint

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Background. The Windover mortuary pond dates to the Early Archaic period (6,800-5,200 years ago) and constitutes one of the earliest archaeological sites with intact and well-preserved human remains in North America. Unlike many prehistoric egalitarian hunter-gatherers, the Windover people may not have practiced a sex-based division of labor, rather they may have shared the load. We explore how mobility and subsistence, as reconstructed from archaeological data, influenced hand and foot bone morphology at Windover. Methods. We took length and width measurements on four carpal bones, four tarsal bones, and loadbearing tarsal areas (calcaneus load arm, trochlea of the talus). We analyzed lateralization using side differences in raw length and width measurements. For other hypothesis testing, we used log transformed length-width ratios to mitigate the confounding effects of sexual dimorphism and trait size variation; we tested between-sex differences in weight-bearing (rear foot) and shock-absorbing (mid foot) tarsal bones and between-sex differences in carpal bones. Results. We identified no significant between-sex differences in rear and midfoot areas, suggesting similar biomechanical stresses. We identified no significant between-sex differences in carpal bones but the test was under-powered due to small sample sizes. Finally, despite widespread behavioral evidence on contemporary populations for human hand and foot lateralization, we found no evidence of either handedness or footedness. Discussion. The lack evidence for footedness was expected due its minimal impact on walking gait but the lack of evidence for handedness was surprising given that ethnographic studies have shown strong handedness in hunter-gatherers during tool and goods manufacture. The reconstructed activity patterns suggested both sexes engaged in heavy load carrying and a shared division of labor. Our results support previous findings-both sexes had stronger weight-bearing bones. While male shock-absorbing bones exhibited a trend towards greater relative width (suggesting greater comparative biomechanical stress

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Holocene morphological variation in hunter-gatherer hands and feet

Hoover

Berbesque

2018

Preprint

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“…Bias against left handedness continues to be a topical issue as most tools designed have a right handed bias. Other studies have supported cultural effects in gestures and active tool manipulation as one of the overriding factor in human handedness evolution [34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Hemispheric Dominance and Laterality in Mobile Phone Use in Adults: An Observational Study

Onyeagwara

Okhakhu

2019

AJMAH

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Aims: Mobile/cell phone use has become an important socio-medical means of communication. The reason people use a particular ear to answer phone calls more frequently may be associated with hemispheric dominance/ handedness. We aim to determine association between hemispheric and or auditory dominance in laterality in mobile phone use. Study Design: This was a three month prospective cross-sectional study involving all consenting medical and paramedical respondents. Place and Duration of Study: Hospital community in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin City , between 15 th March to 15 th June 2018. Method: A modification of the Edinburgh handedness inventory (EHI) was the survey tool. Information retrieved included social demographics, hand most commonly used for activities like writing and picking of phone calls and ear used for phone conversation and the reasons. Data was analyzed using SPSS 19.0 Results: Of the 300 questionnaires distributed, 234 (78%) were completed by the respondents. Onyeagwara and Okhakhu; AJMAH, 14(4): 1-9, 2019; Article no.AJMAH.48242 2 There were 120(51.3%) males and114 (48.7%) females. Age ranged from 18 -80years. A total of 201(85.9%) were right handed, 16(6.8%) left handed and 14(6.0%) ambidextrous. One hundred and fifty four (66%) routinely use their right hand to pick phone calls, 50(21.4%) left and 27 (11.5%) use both hands. A total of 141(60%) receive calls with the right ear, 60 (25.6%) with left, and 31(13.2%) had no preference. Reasons advanced for the use of any particular ear included convenience 173 (73.9%), and better acuity 35(15%). Forty two (17.9%) agreed that the use of cell phone made them aware of their poor hearing in a particular ear. Using Pearson's two tailed test of significance the probability of a right hander using the right hand to pick a phone call and placing it on the right ear is 0.99 or 99%, Vis a Vis left hander. Original Research ArticleConclusion: There appears to be an association between hemispheric dominance and laterality when using the mobile phone.

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“…In naturalistic settings like these, pointing may in fact be the most commonly used gesture type of all, more common than depictive gestures or conventional emblems like the "thumbs up." One group of researchers filmed 25 Aka men in the Central African Republic who were gathered to cook and socialize, and found that pointing accounted for more than 60% of their gestures (Robira et al, 2018). Similarly, Alibali et al (2011) examined math lectures in the United States and Japan and found that attention-directing movements-chiefly pointing, but also other forms of indicating-accounted for more than 60% of gestures.…”

Section: A Communicative Workhorsementioning

confidence: 99%

Fifteen ways of looking at a pointing gesture

Cooperrider¹

2020

Preprint

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The human pointing gesture may be viewed from many angles. On a neutral description, it is an intentional movement, often of the hand, by which one person tries to direct another’s attention—it is, in short, a bodily command to look. But this bland definition is only a start. Pointing may also be seen as a semiotic primitive, a philosophical puzzle, a communicative workhorse, a protean universal, a social tool, a widespread taboo, a partner of language, a part of language, a fixture of art, a graphical icon, a cognitive prop, a developmental milestone, a diagnostic window, a cross-species litmus test, and an evolutionary stepping-stone. These fifteen ways of looking highlight the diverse dimensions of one our most unassuming, ubiquitous behaviors. Pointing appears so widely, and in so many guises, because of what it embodies: a distinctively human preoccupation with attention.

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Handedness in gestural and manipulative actions in male hunter‐gatherer Aka pygmies from Central African Republic

Cited by 6 publications

References 80 publications

Early Holocene morphological variation in hunter-gatherer hands and feet

Early Holocene morphological variation in hunter-gatherer hands and feet

Hemispheric Dominance and Laterality in Mobile Phone Use in Adults: An Observational Study

Fifteen ways of looking at a pointing gesture

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