Lots of people use in everyday life in the form of a gesture middle finger.And not only in the everyday.But what does such a gesture?Why do we react to it?
In fact, the gesture more years than we think.Initially, it was so.One well-known intellectual Diogenes in a debate with the speaker Demosthenes expressed his dissatisfaction with his speeches.This was almost in Athens in the fourth century BC.Since then, much time has passed, but still the middle finger, which dismissed the lead as the rest of the fingers are pressed against the palm, the symbol denotes the insults and discontent to say or do.This gesture has more than two millennia.
According to Desmond Morris, in one of his reports, the gesture is the most ancient of all known at this point gestures.It is the middle finger is a phallic symbol, that is, the middle finger - a phallus, and compressed crowded to palm fingers - a seminal gland.Such a gesture has the most, that neither is primitive roots.
The Romans gesture had a special name: «digitus impudicus», that is obscene, shameless, abusive finger.
gesture found in many cultures and peoples.For example, the finger pointed epigrams the poet hero Mozzarella their doctors, while saying that he is completely healthy.And the poet lived in the first century of our faith.
A Germanic tribes, as evidenced by the ancient Greek historian Tacitus, the gesture shown advancing Roman soldiers.
Greeks middle finger is an indication of male genitalia long before that.For example, in 419, the Greek playwright Aristophanes wrote in his comedy, the heroes first gesticulate their middle fingers, and then - the sexual organs.
There are many theories about the origin of this gesture as an analogue of the grossest insults.Most historians lean toward the legend, which says that for the first time this gesture was applied in 1415 during the Battle of Agincourt.
When the French threatened to cut off the captured English archers middle and index fingers, so that they will never be able to shoot, the British began to swing at the front of the noses of the French middle fingers, which caused a storm of insults.
Materials American press
