What’s the origin of the Boy Scout’s left-hand handshake?
As the 1935 Boy Scout handbook says, "By agreement of the Scout Leaders throughout the world, Boy Scouts greet Brother Scouts with a warm left hand clasp." (wikipedia). But what's the origin of this form of greeting?
Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, claimed he learned the custom from a defeated African chieftain whom he attempted to greet in 1896 by holding out his right hand. The chieftain supposedly replied: "The men in my tribe greet the bravest with the left hand." There are different versions of this story, but I think all of them can safely be dismissed as bogus.
There's also a theory that the scouts shake with their left hand because it's the hand closer to the heart. I also doubt this theory.
I think the real origin traces back to Baden-Powell's passion for promoting ambidexterity — and not just the ability to use either hand with equal dexterity, but to use both hands for different tasks, simultaneously.
Baden-Powell expressed some of these views in the brief introduction he wrote to John Jackson's 1905 book Ambidexterity, or, Two-handedness and two-brainedness:
Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, claimed he learned the custom from a defeated African chieftain whom he attempted to greet in 1896 by holding out his right hand. The chieftain supposedly replied: "The men in my tribe greet the bravest with the left hand." There are different versions of this story, but I think all of them can safely be dismissed as bogus.
There's also a theory that the scouts shake with their left hand because it's the hand closer to the heart. I also doubt this theory.
I think the real origin traces back to Baden-Powell's passion for promoting ambidexterity — and not just the ability to use either hand with equal dexterity, but to use both hands for different tasks, simultaneously.
Baden-Powell expressed some of these views in the brief introduction he wrote to John Jackson's 1905 book Ambidexterity, or, Two-handedness and two-brainedness:
To train the human body completely and symmetrically, that is, to cultivate all its organs and members to their utmost capacity, in order that its functions may also attain their maximum development, is an obligation that cannot safely be ignored. This completeness and symmetry can only be secured by an equal attention to, and exercise of, both sides of the body--the right and the left; and this two-sided growth can alone be promoted and matured by educating our two hands equally, each in precisely the same way, and exactly to the same extent.
It is hardly possible to lay too much stress upon this bimanual training, or to attach too much important to the principke, because our hands -- and our arms, from which, for purposes both of argument and education, they cannot be separated -- not only constitute our chief medium of communication with the outer world, but they are likewise the pre-eminent agency by which we stamp our impress upon it...
The heavy pressure of my office work makes me wish that I had cultivated, in my youth, the useful art of writing on two different subjects at once. I get through a great deal extra -- it is true -- by using the right and left hand alternately, but I thoroughly appreciate how much more can be done by using them both together.
It is hardly possible to lay too much stress upon this bimanual training, or to attach too much important to the principke, because our hands -- and our arms, from which, for purposes both of argument and education, they cannot be separated -- not only constitute our chief medium of communication with the outer world, but they are likewise the pre-eminent agency by which we stamp our impress upon it...
The heavy pressure of my office work makes me wish that I had cultivated, in my youth, the useful art of writing on two different subjects at once. I get through a great deal extra -- it is true -- by using the right and left hand alternately, but I thoroughly appreciate how much more can be done by using them both together.
Comments
Never heard of this! In fact, at that time of my life it was considered bad form to even offer one's left hand.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 08/02/12 at 09:55 AM
How do Muslim Boy Scouts shake hands?
Posted by Kharon Anon on 08/02/12 at 10:47 AM
When I started grade school they were forcing lefties and ambidextrous kids to use only their right hand. I was ambidextrous so I was forced to use just the right and I feel it has adversely effected my manual dexterity all my life. We are all born with a dominant hand or ambidextrous and children should be encouraged to do what comes naturally.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 08/02/12 at 11:10 AM
It's been quite a few years but I kind of remember that two Scouts used the left handshake because they were using their right for the salute to each other. Sounds as good as any other explanation. Unfortunately I don't have access to the old Scouting manual from my misspent youth.
Posted by KDP on 08/02/12 at 11:44 AM
My brother is a lefty and when the school started in on him Mom ah... advised them that that may not be the best way to enhance their health.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 08/02/12 at 01:10 PM
I was in Scouting growing up and was taught that it was related to the African chieftain story. The shaking with the left hand was a sign of respect, trust and peace. Since the left hand was most often used to hold a shield, shaking with the left hand signified that you had put down your defenses to greet someone.
Posted by Jojo on 08/03/12 at 09:25 AM
I was in the Scouts in the UK through the 1960s and it was taught as a recognition sign. Baden Powell would have been very familiar with the horror that any Muslim would have expressed at the prospect of touching the 'dirty' hand - it was a way of identifying someone who was a threat in African or Arab countries.
Posted by RVeee on 08/03/12 at 04:18 PM
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Category: Customs | Rituals and Superstitions