William Makepeace Thackeray has always been an author for discriminating literary palettes. Few would deny that he is the finest literary stylist of his time. Thackeray was at his most Thackerayan in what he called `small beer chronicles': the little things in life. His style reached its highest pitch in essays, his cutting wit in journalism.
Anthropological writings on humour are not numerous, but they do contain insight into the social processes that underlie joking and laughter. This volume examines the cognitive, social, and moral aspects of humour and its potential to bring about a sense of mutual understanding, even among different and possibly hostile people.
