This volume presents a historical and sociological study of humor and jokes. It covers almost every continent and region in the world and also reaches back in time to medieval jokes in Europe and to jokes about the Melanesians in Ancient Greece. It is a particularly rich study of ethnic jokes, political jokes, sick jokes and urban legends and is illustrated with many examples of these. Much of the basic theoretical framework is derived from the German polymath Max Weber and it has also been influenced by the line of thought that proceeds from Aristotle to Durkheim to structuralism but the general approach and findings are original and creative. Multidisciplinary in nature, this volume will be of interest to scholars working in anthropology, sociology, folklore, social psychology, linguistics or literature as well as to historians and philosophers. Christie Davies is Professor of Sociology at the University of Reading, England.

Jokes and their Relations to Society (Humor Research [HR], 4) PDF

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