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Running head: THE LAUNGUAGE OF LAUGHTER
The Universal Language of Laughter: A Worldwide Phenomenon
Caroline Smith
ANTH 2302
Professor B. Vallejo
University of Houston – Downtown
April 28, 2015
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THE LANGUAGE OF LAUGHTER
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Introduction
Laughter is an inherent human characteristic that is universally shared across the globe.
According to Montagu (1961), while each community has its unique factors that may arouse
laughter, the act of laughing is recognized regardless of language, culture or ethnicity.
Sociologists, philosophers and psychologists have all conducted classical research on the human
phenomena of humor and laughter. However, research by anthropologists has been sparse until
recently, despite the fact that humor and laughter are undeniable intertwined in society and
culture. Some recent studies have subscribed to the ideology that laughter is a sensational
activity with seizure-like nature that is stimulated through interacting with amusing cognitive
impetuses (Polimeni & Reiss, 2006). Some contemporary studies assert that laughter is a means
of communicating assorted messages or conveying ideas (Gervais & Wilson, 2005). This implies
that laughter is an instinctive ally to the languages used from land to land. In this paper, I will
explore laughter as a worldwide phenomenon and present explanations relating laughter and
humor to the universality of the experience.
Origin of Laughter
Most theories and empirical approaches used by classical ethnologists and other scholars
in the social science realm to conceptualize the genesis of humor and laughter enclose insights
that typically explain why laughter withstood the consequence of Babel. McComas (1923)
asserts that laughter is an indispensable trait of the human anatomy and an essential assistant to
the evolution of the human race. McComas (1923) identifies laughter as a trait that inherently
progresses from one phase of the evolution of the human race to the other,...