Human Facial Expression

An Evolutionary View

This unique book provides an integrated view of human facial expressions based on contemporary knowledge about the evolution of signaling across the animal kingdom. Spanning fields that range from psychology and neurology to anthropology and linguistics, it reopens and discusses some of the classic questions in the field, including: What do facial expressions express? What are the relations between facial expressions and our motives and emotions? How did our facial expressions evolve? Are there really innate and universal facial expressions?

Human Facial Expression is suitable for graduate and advanced undergraduate use as a text or course supplement. Chapters on the history of interpreting facial expressions, and on Darwin's contributions, set the stage for a thorough discussion of modern evolutionary theory and the biological, cultural, and developmental origins of our facial expressions. The incorporation of recent findings on the syntactics and semantics of animal signaling show the fundamental link of human facial expressions to vocalization and language.

• Coverage includes methodology in evolutionary research
• Introductory discussion of facial nerves and muscles
• Compares and contrasts emotion vs. behavioral ecology views of facial expressions
• Cross-cultural analysis of similarities and differences in facial expressions
• Reviews paralanguage and gesture