Abstract
Left-sided maternal cradling has been widely reported in human populations. In this paper, I review the evidence of laterality in maternal cradling and infant positional biases in non-human primates. The review revealed some evidence of population-left sided cradling in great apes but little consistency in bias was found among Old and New World monkeys. Very little data have been reported in prosimians. I further describe how asymmetries in either maternal cradling or infant positional biases may explain individual and species differences in hand preference.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1243-1265 |
Number of pages | 23 |
Journal | International Journal of Primatology |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2004 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- handedness
- laterality
- maternal cradling
- nipple preferences
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Animal Science and Zoology