Смех. Истоки и функции.

This collection is based on materials of the symposium Laughter: Origin and Functions in Traditional Societies organized by the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (St. Petersburg) in 1999. The contributors to this book consider various aspects of laughter: biological, social, ethnocultural, etc. One of the topics analyzed is the bio-cultural evolution of laughter and related social institutions: carnivals of incorrect behavior, rituals of teasing, aggressive games, etc. In his afterword, the editor and contributor to this book discusses carnivalization and de-carnivalization as social mechanisms and their functions in modern society. Bibliographic references.