Philosophy of laughter

This article examines textual descriptions of smiling, laughing and joking with the pope in thirteenth-century Rome. It focuses on two Anglo-Norman accounts of conducting litigation at the papal curia: Thomas of Marlborough's (d.1236) Chronicon abbatiae de Evesham and Gerald of Wales's (c. 1146–1220×23) De jure et statu Menevensis ecclesiae. Both authors include several careful and prominent references to smiling, laughing and joking, and specifically in relation to Pope Innocent III. These passages have previously been read as straightforward examples of wit and friendship, but this study shows that the authors use these physiological expressions to convey complex and subtly different pictures of the papal curia. Above all, this article demonstrates how Thomas and Gerald's descriptions of humorous interactions with the pope play crucial narrative and mnemonic roles within their work.

Il presente articolo esamina le descrizioni testuali del sorridere, del ridere e dello scherzare con il Papa nella Roma del XIII secolo. Si focalizza in particolare su due resoconti anglo-normanni di controversie nella curia papale: il 'Chronicon abbatiae de Evesham' di Thomas of Marlborough (data di morte 1236) e il 'De jure et statu Menevensis ecclesiae' di Gerald of Wales (c. 1146–1220×23). In entrambi i testi sono presenti molti riferimenti attenti agli atti di sorridere, di ridere e di scherzare, in particolar modo in relazione a Papa Innocenzo III. Questi passaggi sono stati in precedenza interpretati come inequivocabili esempi di umorismo e amicizia, ma questo studio dimostra come gli autori usino queste ‘espressioni fisiologiche’ per descrivere immagini leggermente differenti della curia papale. Soprattutto questo articolo mostra come le descrizioni di interazione umoristica con il papa di Thomas of Marlborough e di Gerald of Wales giochino ruoli narrativi e mnemonici cruciali all'interno dei loro lavori.

This essay examines the ideas of carnival and the carnivalesque in relation to a modern social formation to which I refer as the “Kingdom of Coal.” Conjured incessantly from disjunct social perspectives on fossil fuel extraction and energy production, the Kingdom of Coal offers a grounded example of what Charles Taylor terms a “modern social imaginary.” Carnivalesque maskings and unmaskings dramatize a struggle for publicly relevant subjectivity in the United States. Social bodies constructed through such carnivalesque tropes as the grotesque body, the slaying of the king, and (ecologically) gay materiality articulate profoundly different stakes across class lines. Emulaing the public space needed for critical reflection on such imaginaries, this essay brings into dialogue voices kept rigidly apart by environmental decision-makers and the national media. Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts of monologic and dialogic modes of communication, and the related concepts of classical and grotesque bodies and ecologies, drawn from his theory of the carnivalesque, are key.

Laughter is a normal and natural physiologic response to certain stimuli with widely acknowledged psychological benefits. However, current research is beginning to show that laughter may also have serious positive physiological effects for those who engage in it on a regular basis. Providers who prescribe laughter to their patients in a structured way may be able to use these natural, free, and easily distributable positive benefits. This article reviews the current medical understanding of laughter's physiologic effects and makes a recommendation for how physicians might best harness this natural modality for their patients.

This article addresses both well-researched and relatively unexplored questions pertaining to humor and laughter. The following are some of the questions that are
considered here: What is humor? What is the role of laughter in humor? What are the ontogenetic and phylogenetic origins of laughter? How does humor work, cognitively? What is the functional significance of humor? What are the varieties of laughter and how are they perceived?What kinds of disorders of laughter
have been documented and what do they suggest about the neural circuitry underlying laughter and humor?

The paper intends to track the naming criteria for dogs among the chané. Links between onomastics and diverse cultural contexts are thus analysed - such as the daily treatment and attitudes towards dogs, mythic symbolism, etymology, human names, names of domestic pets and taxonomic classification. In a comparative perspective, meaningful relationships are also verified with the dynamics of ethnic relationships and mythologies of Chaco ethnic groups.

Ivan Vladislavić’s story, ‘Courage’, illustrates how ideology affects individuals’ subjectivity and their physical bodies. No-one has yet noted the uncanny similarities between the bodies of the protagonists, My Old Becker and Kumbuza, or the subtle vicariousness among the characters. Using Kristeva’s exposition of the abject, I show how the village of Lufafa maintains order by relegating the suffering and the unacceptable to society’s periphery. I argue that the similar, abject bodies of the protagonists give physical manifestation to the pain that ideology causes. Yet the presentation of the abject is unusual, as the story’s humour directs the reader’s focus away from the pain. A first reading is likely to leave one snickering, as satire often does. Further investigation of the abject pain renders one’s experience of the humour uncomfortable. I explore the role of the humour in the context of abject bodily pain and suffering. The scene where Becker measures Kumbuza’s body justifies using tickle-torture theories for probing the relationship between pleasure and pain, sympathy and cruelty. I argue that laughter creates a sense of cruelty, implicating the reader of the text, but that the story foregrounds laughter’s propensity to create a sense of community that redeems the reader.

This essay develops a hilarious perspective on the Nigerian postcolonial predicament. This perspective presumes not only that there is a comic dimension to the socio-political situation in Nigeria, but also that a pragmatic confrontation with this situation requires the hilariouslaughing it out-which preserves the health of the body while the political health of the state is being crafted. This perspective of laughing at the Nigerian situation does not equate laughing with the predicament. While the latter is a complicitous laughter borne out of powerlessness; the former is therapeutic and critical, and it is so not only for its unburdening function, but also for its capacity for social criticism which arguably injects a social consciousness of the collective situation within the laughing space of the individual.

nqrwv pwn prav gmata megav lh~ me; n spoudh` ouj k a[ xia, aj nagkaiòv n ge mh; n spoudav zein. Plato, Laws 7.803b (Human affairs are not really worth much seriousness-yet all the same, we can't escape taking them seriously.) Nostre propre et peculiere condition est autant ridicule que risible. Montaigne, Essais i.50 arion 13.2 fall 2005

A convert to Catholicism, G.K. Chesterton was a leading intellectual of the British Edwardian age and one of the important social and religious thinkers of the twentieth century. His trademark was paradox. He wrote in defense of the imagination and the corralling of opposites, oppositions, contradictions and bountiful inconsistencies. The article explores Chesterton’s views on faith, religion, God, Christianity, Islam, modernity, change, and progress. It locates him in a philosophical stream that sees laughter and comedy as a religious disguise, paradox as a creative force, and the imagination as a necessary complement of reason. This is framed by a discussion of Chesterton’s thoughts about the importance of limits and boundaries in defining good actions and good societies.

In this article, I argue against the claim made by Vassilis Saroglou that religion, and specifically Christianity, may be taken as an a priori incompatibility. This is done through a discussion of the reconciliation of theology and humor that is evident in the work of G. K. Chesterton — a theologian who was forever laughing, joking and defending the ephemeral. To navigate this reconciliation, I tackle Chesterton’s writings on two fronts. To begin with, after reading Chesterton through the lens offered William Desmond’s ‘fourfold sense of being’, I discuss his thinking on humor in terms of his distinctive articulation of Christianity in paradoxical terms. Secondly, I then discuss Chesterton’s views on humor with regard to his prioritization of the virtues of honesty, humility and hospitality in relation to his own paradoxical logic. In showing these two strands of his thinking — his paradoxy and morality — to be deeply intertwined, I suggest that the reconciliation of humor and theology is most perfectly located in and represented by what may be understood as the centre of Chesterton’s theological project: the desire that is expressed through the Christian hope for the renewal of all things.

The narrative of Luther's life and performance has triggered considerable attention throughout the ages. Countless biographical studies about him have been published. As a rule, the common sense picture of Luther presents him as a serious, fanatic, depressed, even gloomy figure. In his own self-narrative, however, another, often neglected side of his personality emerges. Notably in his Tischreden - Table Talk or Prandial Conversations - Luther stands out as a gay and jolly figure, a contemporary of Rabelais. These conversations, although predominantly devoted to comments on the Scriptures, are crammed with jokes, verbal abuse, parody, franc-parler, colloquialisms, folksy witticisms and laughter. Bakhtin's book on Rabelais allows us to recover this "comical side" of Luther. Moreover, by relying on Bakhtin's reading of Rabelais, we become aware of the crucial and intimate relationship in Luther's writing between truth and laughter. The turning point in his biography, as well as in his reading of the Bible, is the so-called Tower Experience ("Turm Erlebnis"): a comical scene, quite in accordance with the genre conventions of late medieval and Renaissance comical narrative. His extraordinary gift for language and his profound acquaintance with vernacular speech genres (the unofficial and unpublished spheres of language), allowed him to revitalize and familiarize Christianity, to reform its standard chronotopes, and to create the German language

This essay analyzes the subtle theology of laughter that is scattered across Augustine's Confessiones (conf.). First, I draw on Sarah Byers's work in order to argue that Augustine adopts and adapts Stoic moral psychology as a means of sorting the laugh into two moral kinds—as evidence of either good joy or bad joy. In turn, these two kinds provide the loose structure for the double theological taxonomy of merciless and merciful laughter that conf. develops. Next, I treat laughter of each sort via exegesis of several textual vignettes. Close readings of key passages show that both merciless and merciful laughter evince distinctive features across Augustine's conf. This also reveals exactly how Augustine embeds laughter's double taxonomy in order to confect his own salvation narrative. Thus, on the reading offered here, laughter proves central to the salvation history that Augustine's conf. weaves. We learn a good deal about Augustine's story and his theology by attending to the subject, object, and character of laughter that may be found in his conf.

An early scene in Act Two of Shakespeare's Othello is often cut or shortened. It is the one in which Iago jests with Desdemona while she waits and hopes for Othello to arrive safely in Cyprus (II.i.100–166). Critics and directors have found the scene jarring. Many productions have cut it and many editors dismissed it. This makes sense if one sees Iago's and Desdemona's exchange literally as farce, that is, as stuffing or filler. However, that perception flattens out what can instead be seen as a complex communal exchange of power and moral ideals and a delicate negotiation of a particular ethos – honestas – in a public setting, which cannot be characterized merely as an attack and a defence. This article develops a means of exploring the scene more fully by treating it as a serious dramatic exploration of Iago's persuasiveness and Desdemona's cleverness. I shall argue that the scene embodies a more complex exchange of social values than has been acknowledged. In doing so, I suggest that the rhetoric of jesting Shakespeare dramatizes here is a kind of efficacy that works by producing what is better described as a morally meaningful community than simply as a power structure facilitating self-interest in moral disguise.

Este ensayo estudia varios matices de la risa en la obra de Georges Bataille y cómo se manifiestan en la narrativa tardía de Carlos Fuentes, sobre todo en el cuento «El hijo de la estrella». El estudio parte de una discusión de la risa del salvaje en Histoire de l’Œil, «Le cheval académique», y «L’Amérique disparue». Luego se estudian las relaciones entre la risa y la práctica de la alegría ante la muerte entre los aztecas, y la risa y la soberanía de los niños. En la última parte se comparan el carnaval de Bakhtin y la risa en Bataille como formas de pensamiento crítico. Según ambos críticos la risa interrumpe el discurso autoritario y restaura la comunicación y la intimidad con el otro.

Cet essai étudie différentes nuances du rire dans l’œuvre de Georges Bataille ainsi que la manière dont elles se manifestent dans les œuvres ultérieures de Carlos Fuentes, surtout dans la nouvelle « El hijo de la estrella ». L’étude se fonde sur une discussion autour du rire sauvage dans Histoire de l’Œil, « Le cheval académique » et « L’Amérique disparue ». Ensuite, nous étudions la relation entre le rire et la pratique de la joie devant la mort chez les Aztèques, et entre le rire et la souveraineté des enfants. La dernière partie compare le Carnaval de Bakhtine et le rire dans l’œuvre de Bataille comme pensée critique. Selon les deux écrivains, le rire fait cesser le discours autoritaire et instaure l’intimité avec l’autre

Who's Laughing Now? Feminist Perspectives on Humour and Laughter is a collection of engaging, creative, and academic contributions that illustrate the sociopolitical importance of humour in our lives. This collection, masterfully assembled by Anna Frey, will make you laugh, reflect, and-mostly-question the power of humour to shape how we understand gender. This is a must read! (Pamela J. Downe Ph.D, Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Saskatchewan, Past-President/Présidente sortante, Canadian Anthropology Society/Société canadienne d'anthropologie)

From dour old women to buzzkills who can't take a joke, the stereotype of the humourless feminist has repeatedly been deployed to derail and delegitimize the women's rights movement. This collection skips the tired debates that ask whether feminists can be funny-we know the answer to this already-to instead investigate contemporary expressions and functions of humour within international feminist movements and communities. This interdisciplinary volume showcases critical analyses of cultural texts and events, personal accounts of producing and encountering feminist humour, and creative interruptions that pair laughter with insight. As a whole, this work seeks to sideline caricatures of the humourless feminist by promoting a vision of a diverse movement vibrant with innovative, generous, threatening, and, ultimately, triumphant laughter.

Among Latin authors, Cicero is our most important source on the topic of laughter. Cicero views laughter as a defining feature of human sociability, and tackles it with four different uses and contexts in mind: the enhancing of human relationships, the enforcing of the norms shared by the community, the strengthening of one’s public figure, and the maintaining of the ethical agent’s individual coherence. By offering a synthesis of these various views, which Cicero expounds both in a rhetorical (De oratore, 55 BCE) and a philosophical (De officiis, 46 BCE) context, this chapter shows that these approaches stem from a unified understanding of laughter, and that there is no real difference between Cicero’s rhetorical and ethical approach to the topic. The proper and improper uses of laughter, in Cicero’s views, illustrate perfectly what’s at stake in the relationship between the moral agent and the community he belongs to.

Resumen:  Una de las formas más arcaicas y evidentes de la comunicación es reír. En la cultura digital, las imágenes humorísticas, en concreto las satíricas, se unen a la sociedad de masas mediante la configuración de ideas e identidades. Durante el s. XIX, la identidad y el nacionalismo han sido dos caras de la misma moneda. Su representación por medio de símbolos e ideas siguen estando patentes en la actualidad. En el ámbito nacional, la identidad catalana no solo sigue teniendo una vinculación nacionalista propia del XIX, sino que ha devenido en un fenómeno de identidad propio unido asimismo al procés de independencia. Por eso mismo y con el objetivo de poner en relieve el poder de las imágenes humorísticas actuales, como son los memes, veremos cómo se convierten estas últimas, en expresiones de la memoria identitaria mediante el caso catalán.

Abstract: One of the most archaic and obvious forms of communication is laughter. In digital culture, humorous images, in particular satirical ones, they join in mass society through the configuration of ideas and identities. During the 19th century, identity and nationalism have been two sides of the same coin. Their representation through symbols and ideas are still evident today. At the national level, Catalan identity not only continues to have the nationalist connection typical of the nineteenth century, but it also became an identity phenomenon of its own, closely linked to the process for independence. For that reason, and with the aim of highlighting the power of current humorous images such as memes, we will see through the Catalan case how these images become the expressions of identity memory.

« Le rire soigne » : ce lieu commun que l'on retrouve à foison dans une société avide de trouver des thérapies alternatives1 a en réalité des origines très anciennes et il s'est diffusé dans la mentalité européenne, via des croyances archaïques, mais aussi par le biais d'histoires et de contes qui mettent en scène le pouvoir thérapeutique du rire. Si l'on tente de faire l'archéologie de ce vaste continent fictionnel, ancré dans la culture populaire et pour cette raison souvent peu étudié, on s'aperçoit qu'il révèle une complexité inattendue en liant valeur thérapeutique du rire et pouvoir de l'image : l'ancêtre de tous les guérisseurs par le rire est en effet la servante Baubô, dont le mythe grec ancien donne lieu à de multiples représentations dans la culture populaire et savante de l'époque. Cette histoire raconte que, là où personne ne réussissait à soulager Demeter anéantie par la perte de sa fille, la vieille servante aurait tout simplement soulevé ses jupes et exhibé sa vulve, suscitant l'hilarité de la déesse. Ce n'est donc pas une histoire comique qui a guéri Demeter, mais bien une image, une scène grotesque et déplacée à laquelle aucun médecin n'avait songé exposer la mère douloureuse. Comment comprendre le lien que fait l'anecdote entre image comique et guérison ? Il peut paraître à première vue surprenant de conférer un tel pouvoir sur la santé à l'image comique-sur la déesse et à la servante. D'abord, l'image comique est réputée simple, elle ne prend pas « position2 » et pourtant dans cette fiction et toutes celles qui s'en inspirent elle constitue bien un acte3. Ensuite, elle excède les cadres dans lesquels on a l'habitude de concevoir l'action bénéfique des images : elle n'est pas apaisante, comme chez Lacan4, ou consolante, comme chez Aby Warburg5, mais procède par une décharge brutale et inattendue, née du déplacement incongru vers les sphères basses. Paradoxalement, c'est seulement en jetant les yeux sur le sexe ridé de sa vieille servante que la déesse entrevoit qu'il existe autre chose que les peines de son âme. L'objectif de cet article est de montrer que cette légende à tout point de vue marginale, qui fait figure de coda alternative et méconnue du mythe de Demeter, a en réalité connu une fortune importante dans la culture européenne, à la fois en termes quantitatifs et qualitatifs : pour cette raison, nous suivrons la trace de la légende à travers ses métamorphoses dans le domaine du conte européen, pour aboutir à l'un des plus célèbres Märchen du romantisme allemand, La Princesse Brambilla (1820) d'E.T.A. Hoffmann, qui selon nous reprend et actualise le thème. Il ne

In this chapter, the author will analyze the relationship between humor and power in the light of court jesters (comedians) and sovereign (president). The chapter offers a philosophical perspective on the social significance of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The theoretical framework is based on C. G. Jung’s theory of the archetypes, and especially on the concepts of the ‘shadow’ and the ‘trickster’

The laughter of Samuel Beckett’s characters is frequently strange and unsettling. Characters laugh unpredictably, and the reader or spectator does not feel prompted to join them; when we do laugh in response to the Beckettian text, we are often shocked by our own lack of propriety. I examine laughter theory and the laughter in Gothic texts to explore why Beckettian laughter so disconcerts us, and what the implications of this affective response are for our understanding of what constitutes the human, and of our own ostensibly human identities.

Celem refleksji będącej podstawą niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie okoliczności budowania wspólnoty śmiechu w klasie szkolnej. Autor zakłada, że jednym z czynników rozwiązywania konfliktów, poszukiwania płaszczyzn dialogu i osiągania kompromisu w klasie szkolnej postrzeganej jako pogranicze kulturowe jest świadome budowanie wspólnoty śmiechu. Jej liderem może być zarówno nauczyciel (mistrz), jak i jeden z uczniów pełniący wśród rówieśników funkcję błazna klasowego.
Klasa szkolna rozpatrywana jest tu jako jeden z najbardziej rozpowszechnionych typów kulturowego pogranicza. Dochodzi w niej do spotkania osób funkcjonujących na co dzień w różnych grupach wiekowych, charakteryzujących się odmiennym statusem w środowisku szkoły. W odniesieniu do niej można mówić także o kontaktach z Innością/Obcością zachodzących na zasadzie przenikania określonych wzorów kulturowych i wartości ze sfery publicznej, co następuje w czasie lekcji z przedmiotów, w których program jest wpisane zróżnicowanie kulturowe. Naturalne jest więc stykanie się w klasie (niekiedy także starcie) wzorów kulturowych wyniesionych z domu przez uczniów i/lub obecnych w kulturze masowej. Wiąże się to z konfliktami w społeczności szkolnej, przybierającymi rozmaite formy i wymagającymi od wychowawców przedsięwzięcia środków zaradczych. Wspólnotowy śmiech w klasie szkolnej – szczególnie śmiech z kimś, a nie przeciw komuś – świadczy o integracji środowiska, wzajemnym zrozumieniu i możliwości zaistnienia dialogu ponad granicami wieku i statusu. Zarówno nauczyciel-mistrz, jak i klasowy błazen mogą więc odgrywać w klasowej społeczności rolę nie do przecenienia, ponieważ budowanie – także dzięki ich działaniom – międzykulturowej wspólnoty w klasie pomaga uczniom aktywnie poznawać jej wartość, którą mogą wykorzystać w życiu pozaszkolnym.

Słowa kluczowe: śmiech, pogranicze kulturowe, edukacja międzykulturowa, nauczyciel, klasa szkolna

Abstract
The aim of these reflections is to verify the thesis concerning establishment of the community of laughter as one of the factors supporting and empowering teachers in the process of resolving conflicts, seeking dimensions of dialogue, and achieving compromise in the classroom (perceived as a cultural borderland). It is an area, people of different social statuses that function on daily basis in various age groups meet. Hence, with reference to the classroom, encountering the Other/Alien occurs on the ground permeated by given cultural patterns and values from the public sphere. Such process takes place when the class accomplishes objectives linked to the cultural diversity.
Presented arguments were formulated as a result of a profound inspection and analysis of the secondary data. Both the master-teacher and the class clown can play a key role, be of paramount importance to the class community. Establishing cross-cultural community in the classroom can help pupils to actively recognize and learn the value of such community – that could be utilized in their subsequent, after-school life.
Keywords: laughter, cultural borderland, cross-cultural education, teacher, classroom, intercultural education, multicultural education

Erschienen in: Maske und Kothurn 4 (2006), S. 30-40. Haben Sie in letzter Zeit einmal gelacht? Jede und jeder von Ihnen wird dies wohl mehr oder weniger bejahen können. Lachen wie Komik sind ein wesentlicher Teil unserer Lebensrealität, ja wir können gar nicht anders, als dann und wann einfach mal zu lachen. Ob nun zu Hause oder im Büro, im Kino, im Theater oder im Kabarett -überall wird gelacht, auch wenn sich Formen des Lachens weitreichend unterscheiden ebenso wie die Lachanlässe und komischen Begebenheiten. Das Komische stellt ein Ereignis dar, das stets auf eine Wahrnehmungsform, eben auf das Lachen ausgerichtet ist. Die signifikante Wechselbeziehung von Komik und Lachen ist vielfach betont worden und gilt als unbestritten, während das, was die Komik und das Lachen selbst auszeichnet, wie sie funktionieren und welche Funktionen und Bedeutungen sie haben, sehr unterschiedlich und kontrovers bestimmt wurde. Eine Dimension des Komischen ist indes der Zusammenhang von Komik und Scheitern. Stolpern, Versprechen oder Fallen, jene Mißgeschicke, die sich konträr zu den avisierten Handlungen und Intentionen verhalten und zugleich eine Fremdbestimmtheit offenbaren, 1 ob sie nun bewußt inszeniert oder unfreiwillig geschehen, gelten geradezu als Paradebeispiele des Komischen. Das Scheitern stellt aber nicht nur einen zentralen Topos des Komischen dar, sondern mit dem komischen Geschehen wird auch eine Verletzung und Kritik von sozialen, ästhetischen, moralischen und anderen Normen und Vorstellungen verbunden, also ein momentanes Aussetzen oder Versagen von normativen Werten. 2 Allerdings, so scheint mir, haftet auch dem komischen Ereignis selbst etwas Krisenhaftes, etwas Scheiterndes an, können Komik wie Lachen selbst ins Schlittern, ja in eine Krise geraten. Denn so oft wie wir lachen müssen, können wir auch manchmal einfach nicht lachen, obgleich wir lachen sollten. Jede und jeder hat ebenso schon erlebt, daß Witze nicht ankommen, Ironie nicht bemerkt wird, kleine Späße, Lästereien oder Frotzeleien für manche gar nicht komisch sind, oder man sich schlicht und ergreifend dem Lachen verweigert, weil man sich dazu gezwungen sieht. Oder jene Situationen, bei denen das Komische plötzlich ins Unkomische kippt, einem das Lachen quasi im Halse stecken bleibt und eine Unsicherheit und Ungewißheit bezüglich der Situation aufkommt, ja die Komik selbst in Frage stehen kann. Im weiteren möchte ich dieser Krisenhaftigkeit der Komik folgen, wobei ich zunächst

When Umberto Eco, in his novel The Name of the Rose, sets out the discussion on laugther through the dialogue between Jorge and Guillermo, he represents an endless, ontological debate which has been developed since old times, both by Church scholars and other thinkers: theologists, anthropologists, philosophers and also literary scholars.
The main questions are: would be laugther a human (and only human) property or would it be also extensive to God? Could ambiguity of laugther be compatible to the Divine perfection or is the deforming effect of laugther more suitable to Devil’s attributes? Would be laugther a foolish and frivoulous perversion or would it be an example of wise and superior rationality? Could it be a constructive language between Man/Human and God(s) or would it be the irruption of laugther (in Man/Human or in God) a traumatic incident which will condemn this complex relationship to crisis? Could we consider laugther as an exilic language?
These are but some of the issues developed by the Cape Verdean author G.T. Didial. His ontological fiction is characterized by a subversive nature. Laugther (by God,
Man and Devil) is also there. Sometimes exhibiting a clamorous laugther, others presenting a more selfcontained and silent laugther, Didial’s fiction («Contos de Macaronésia» and «O Estado Impenitente da Fragilidade») never looks for a humoristic effect. Quite on the contrary, it looks for the anxiety of grotesque.

La risa y la sonrisa han sido consideradas a través de la historia como una manifestación de bienestar y agrado en nuestra sociedad. Son formas que nos sirven para comunicar y para demostrar, regularmente, estados de ánimos óptimos; sin embargo no siempre su relación física tiene que ver con cuestiones emocionales positivas. Hoy son consideradas como herramientas naturales para prolongar estos estados o bien “salir” de condiciones físicas y psicológicas no deseadas o adversas. El presente artículo resume algunas aportaciones científicas al tema que distintos autores han elaborado intentado explicar las funciones médicas y sociales de la risa, específicamente en el ámbito de la comunicación, como producción de sentido, considerando a la risa como un símbolo de expresión y comunicación humana. Es así que podremos distinguir entre la risa, la sonrisa y la carcajada, los distintos detonadores de éstas, su compresión a través de la historia, los contextos en los cuales debe ser interpretada, los diferentes tipos y formas, y sus beneficios psicofisiológicos, así como las recomendaciones para hacer de ellas un ejercicio cotidiano que sirva para enfrentar los retos de una sociedad en ocasiones adversa, insegura, estresante y hostil pero no imposible, sobre todo para aquellos que gustan de observar las experiencias diarias con una mente muy abierta. Es necesario entender a la risa y sus distintos contextos, es importante conocer sus beneficios y saber interpretar su información.

With a few remaining Yaminahua and Pacaguara, the Chacobo are currently the only Pano-speaking group of Bolivian Amazonia. Through ethnographic description the paper analyses practical, symbolic and discourse contexts such as hunting, drinking bouts, interethnic relationships, mythology, gender ideology, kinship and onomastics in order to track down several phenomena that make the Chacobo laugh. After discussing some possible ways of classification of Chacobo humour, the paper proposes a sociological interpretation of joking as a form of collective thought.

Wer an eine Phänomenologie des Lachens denkt, denkt wohl zuerst an Henri Bergson und Helmuth Plessner. Bergsons Essay Das Lachen (1900) und Plessners Studie Lachen und Weinen (1941) gelten als Klassiker und sind vermutlich die am meisten gelesenen philosophischen Abhandlungen über das Lachen. Aber was hat die Tradition der Phänomenologie diesbezüglich sonst noch zu bieten? Der folgende Artikel bietet einen Überblick über phänomenologische Theorien des Lachens, wobei sowohl die vor- als auch die nachphänomenologische Tradition bzw. das Umfeld der Phänomenologie mit berücksichtigt wird. Wie bei vielen randständigen Themen in der Philosophie, so trifft auch auf das Lachen zu: Ist einmal die Aufmerksamkeit darauf gerichtet, so bietet das philosophische Feld mehr, als man zunächst für möglich hielt.

A partir de materiales etnográficos de campo, se describen diversas instancias de fenómenos que hacen reír a los chacobo (Pano) de la  Amazonía boliviana en contextos discursivos o prácticos como la caza, las fiestas, las relaciones interétnicas, las relaciones de parentesco, la onomástica o la mitología, y se propone una hipótesis sociológica de interpretación del humorismo chacobo.