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The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death

GNC

King-Sized Canary
Joined
Aug 25, 2001
Messages
33,634
Apologies if I've asked this before, I don't think I have...

Has anyone heard the explorer story where the intrepid missionary encounters a tribe that has never met an outsider before, so because they are armed, he smiles broadly to indicate he means them no harm. Unfortunately, showing your teeth to this tribe is seen as an act of aggression, and they kill him with their spears.

Did this ever happen? Or something like it?
 
I suppose it might be linked to the theory that laughter evolved from an aggressive baring of the teeth in lesser primates, like chimpanzees, as a way of enforcing a hierarchy. No idea if there's any truth to that either.
 
I suppose it might be linked to the theory that laughter evolved from an aggressive baring of the teeth in lesser primates, like chimpanzees, as a way of enforcing a hierarchy. No idea if there's any truth to that either.

The baring of teeth in higher primates has more recently been re-interpreted as a cue of non-aggression and good will, at least in some species.

With regard to explorers versus natives, this 2010 research suggested Euro invaders in the Caribbean region misinterpreted native artifacts exhibiting broadly bared teeth as threatening when they were more probably meant to connote good will / simple smiling.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sc...ldnt-recognise-a-smile-on-native-symbols.html
 
Well, there's a turnaround! Also reassuring for anyone laughing.
 
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