Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in PregnancyEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in Pregnancy
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
In some monkeys it would seem that the muscular movement which in
man has become the smile is the characteristic facial expression
of sexual tumescence or courtship. Discussing the facial
expression of pleasure in children, S.S. Buckman has the
following remarks: "There is one point in such expression which
has not received due consideration, namely, the raising of lumps
of flesh each side of the nose as an indication of pleasure.
Accompanying this may be seen small furrows, both in children and
adults, running from the eyes somewhat obliquely towards the
nose. What these characters indicate may be learned from the male
mandril, whose face, particularly in the breeding season, shows
colored fleshy prominences each side of the nose, with
conspicuous furrows and ridges. In the male mandril these
characters have been developed because, being an unmistakable
sign of sexual ardor, they gave the female particular evidence of
sexual feelings. Thus such characters would come to be recognized
as habitually symptomatic of pleasurable feelings. Finding
similar features in human beings, and particularly in children,
though not developed in the same degree, we may assume that in
our monkey-like ancestors facial characters similar to those of
the mandril were developed, though to a less extent, and that
they were symptomatic of pleasure, because connected with the
period of courtship. Then they became conventionalized as
pleasurable symptoms." (S.S. Buckmann, "Human Babies: What They
Teach," _Nature_, July 5, 1900.) If this view is accepted, it may
be said that the smile, having in man become a generalized sign
of amiability, has no longer any special sexual significance. It
is true that a faint and involuntary smile is often associated
with the later stages of tumescence, but this is usually lost
during detumescence, and may even give place to an expression of
ferocity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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