FORUM FOR ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURE

ANTROPOLOGICHESKIJ FORUM
RUS | ENG

Antropologicheskij forum, 2016, no. 29

 

DISGUST AND MILK OF KINDNESS: А Review of VALERIE CURTIS, DON’T LOOK, DON’T TOUCH, DON'T EAT: THE SCIENCE BEHIND REVULSION. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013, 184 pp.

Maria Stanyukovich

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences
3 Universitetskaya Emb., St Petersburg, Russia
Maria.Stanyukovich()kunstkamera.ru

Abstract: The reviewed book treats disgust as a model emotion that shields humans from “body-snatchers” — parasites and viruses. While understandable from the point of view of virologists and hygienists, Valerie Curtis’ arguments are not too convincing for anthropologists. Bodily fluids, which the author treats as universal objects of fear and disgust, are not perceived by traditional cultures as dangerous, but as potent substances, malevolent or benevolent in different situations. While sharing the ability of other bodily fluids to spread infections, milk and tears have exemplary positive connotations in human culture, which gives them no place in the reviewed book.

Keywords: disgust, anthropology of the body, ethology, epidemiology, hygiene, body liquids, human behavior, emotions.

To cite: Stanyukovich M., 'Vystrel v moloko [Disgust and Milk of Kindness]: A Review of Valerie Curtis, Don’t Look, Don’t Touch, Don't Eat: The Science behind Revulsion. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013, 184 pp.', Antropologicheskij forum, 2016, no. 29, pp. 247–268.

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/029/stanyukovich.pdf