Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The Evolution of Happiness

  • Research
  • Published:
Archaeologies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The authors reveal a dramatic but previously unsuspected pattern in archaeological illustration: the presence of smiling faces composed of artifacts arranged in plates of archaeological illustrations and photographs. In this paper, we explore the possible meanings that lurk behind and emerge from these mysterious portraits, questioning whether they are byproducts of human agency or whether, instead, they represent new examples of how material objects act back on (or “interfere with”) human agency.

Résumé

Les auteurs révèlent un motif dramatique mais jusqu'à présent insoupçonné de l'illustration archéologique : la présence d'artéfacts arrangés de façon à composer des visages souriants sur des planches d'illustrations et de photographies archéologiques. Dans cet article, nous explorons les significations possibles qui se cachent derrière et émergent de ces portraits mystérieux, en nous posant la question de savoir si nous avons affaire au résultat d'une action humaine délibérée, ou s'il s'agit là de nouveaux examples de la façon dont les objets matériels réagissent à (ou « interfèrent avec ») les actions des hommes.

Resumen

Los autores revelan un patrón impresionante pero insospechado previamente en la ilustración arqueológica: la presencia de caras sonrientes compuestas por artefactos colocados en láminas de ilustraciones arqueológicas y fotografías. En el presente documento, exploramos los posibles significados que acechan detrás de estos misteriosos retratos y emergen de los mismos, cuestionándonos si son derivados de la acción humana o si, en cambio, representan nuevos ejemplos de cómo los objetos materiales frenan (o “interfieren con”) la acción humana.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14
Figure 15
Figure 16
Figure 17
Figure 18
Figure 19
Figure 20
Figure 21
Figure 22
Figure 23
Figure 24
Figure 25
Figure 26
Figure 27

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Brooks, Arthur C. 2012. Why Conservatives are Happier than Liberals. The New York Times Sunday Review July 8:6.

  • Ford, James A. and Clarence H. Webb 1956. Poverty Point, a Late Archaic Site in Louisiana. Anthropological Papers Volume 46(1). American Museum of Natural History, New York.

  • Kuhn, Thomas (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago PressChicago.,

    Google Scholar 

  • Pew Research Center 2006. Are We Happy Yet? A Social Trends Report. http://pewresearch.org/assets/social/pdf/AreWeHappyYet.pdf.

  • Tringham, Ruth E. (1991) Households with Faces: The Challenge of Gender in Prehistoric Architectural Remains. In Engendering Archaeologypp. 93–131, edited by Joan Geroand Margaret Conkey, Blackwell PublishersCambridge.,

    Google Scholar 

  • Trumble, Angus (2004) A Brief History of the Smile, Basic BooksNew York.,

    Google Scholar 

  • Wobst, H. Martin 1977. Stylistic Behavior and Information Exchange. In For the Director: Research Essays in Honor of James B. Griffin. Anthropological Papers of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan 61:317–342

  • Wobst, H. Martin (1999) Style in Archaeology or Archaeologists in Style. In Material Meanings: Critical Approaches to the Interpretation of Material Culturepp. 118–132, edited by Elizabeth S Chilton, The University of Utah PressSalt Lake City.,

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research on the materiality of happiness began more than 30 years ago when the two authors were graduate students at the University of Massachusetts, taking seminars from H. Martin Wobst. It was Stephen who first started to notice images such as the ones we discuss here, and Joan was charmed. So we married and here, after many years, is the outcome of our continued joint research on the topic. We wish to acknowledge and thank Martin for his ceaseless inspiration, support and enthusiasm, his encouragement to read widely in disparate literatures and languages, his humor, imagination and forbearance, then and now, now and then. Thanks also to our two anonymous reviewers—Bob Paynter and Susan Kus—for helpful tips; they remain faceless if not nameless; thanks as well to the truly anonymous reviewer. And a tip-of-the-hat to colleagues and friends Claudine Scoville, Ruth Trocolli, Diane Gifford-Gonzales and Dorothy Lippert for encouragement and contributions. Neither they, nor Martin, can be implicated in the interpretations presented here, unless the guilt is by association, alas inescapable.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, NMNH MRC-112, PO Box 37012, Washington, DC, 20013-7012, USA

    Stephen Loring

  2. Department of Anthropology, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20016-8003, USA

    Joan Gero

Authors
  1. Stephen Loring
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Joan Gero
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephen Loring.

Notes

Notes

  1. 1.

    Whimsy does not figure significantly in the documentation of archaeological sites and features, see however the giant squirrel hidden in the foliage of the oblique perspective drawing of the Poverty Point site in Louisiana (Ford and Webb 1956, Figure 2).

  2. 2.

    This image is both the earliest published arti-face—1875—that we have been able to locate, as well as being the depiction of the oldest artifacts, more than 15,000 years old.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Loring, S., Gero, J. The Evolution of Happiness. Arch 8, 376–402 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-012-9208-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-012-9208-x

Key Words

Search

Navigation