The principle of _revival, in weakened form, of reactions useful in more
violent dealings with the object inspiring the emotion_, has found many
applications. So slight a symptom as the snarl or sneer, the one-sided
uncovering of the upper teeth, is accounted for by Darwin as a survival
from the time when our ancestors had large canines, and unfleshed them
(as dogs now do) for attack. Similarly the raising of the eyebrows in
outward attention, the opening of the mouth in astonishment, come,
according to the same author, from the utility of these movements in
extreme cases. The raising of the eyebrows goes with the opening of the
eye for better vision; the opening of the mouth with the intensest
listening, and with the rapid catching of the breath which precedes
muscular effort. The distention of the nostrils in anger is interpreted
by Spencer as an echo of the way in which our ancestors had to breathe
when, during combat, their "mouth was filled up by a part of an
antagonist's body that had been seized" (!). The trembling of fear is
supposed by Mantegazza to be for the sake of warming the blood (!). The
reddening of the face and neck is called by Wundt a compensatory
arrangement for relieving the brain of the blood-pressure which the
simultaneous excitement of the heart brings with it. The effusion of
tears is explained both by this author and by Darwin to be a
blood-withdrawing agency of a similar sort. The contraction of the
muscles around the eyes, of which the primitive use is to protect those
organs from being too much gorged with blood during the screaming fits
of infancy, survives in adult life in the shape of the frown, which
instantly comes over the brow when anything difficult or displeasing
presents itself either to thought or action.
"As the habit of contracting the brows has been followed by infants
during innumerable generations, at the commencement of every crying or
screaming fit," says Darwin, "it has become firmly associated with the
incipient sense of something distressing or disagreeable. Hence, under
similar circumstances, it would be apt to be continued during maturity,
although never then developed, into a crying fit. Screaming or weeping
begins to be voluntarily restrained at an early period of life, whereas
frowning is hardly ever restrained at any age."
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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