Notes on love and laughter

Abstract

Laughter emerges in so many different situations that it is difficult to find a common thread to it. Similarly, different conceptions of laughter arise that, as a celebration of life, is intimately related to erotic play and sexual pleasure. This paper attempts to account for this relation, observed both in the western founding cultures and in the Mayan, Quechua, and Aztec Pre-Hispanic cultures. For such purpose, various meanings of laughter observed in the two cultural areas are noted. In order to better understand them, they are placed in the context of the gravity that characterises the present official culture and from which, or against which, laughter emerges.