Biocultural Approaches to the Emotions

Are emotions given by biology or are they learned? Are they the same everywhere, or culturally variable? Research on the emotions tends to be polarized between neo-Darwinian and culturalist perspectives. In this volume, biological and cultural anthropologists attempt to transcend the traditional oppositions, proposing various strategies for integrating biological and cultural approaches to the study of emotion. Discussing a variety of fascinating ethnographic examples, topics range from the effects of music to the relationships between emotion and respiration. The editor's introduction lucidly reviews the state of the field.