Ferocious teeth baring is really just a smile
Posted on 07. Jun, 2010 by admin in Psychology, Science
The people of the Caribbean whose art depicted bared teeth were misunderstood by Europeans 500 years ago and far from being frighteningly aggressive, were actually depicting a smile, according to scientists.
The ‘devil grimace’ was frequently seen by early visitors carved on to wooden seats and incised into shells worn as bracelets and necklaces. The bared-teeth motif was widely reported by Europeans as hostile, anti-Christian, devilish and frightening.
But new research suggests these early interpretations of the bared-teeth motif or ‘grimace’ which inspired subsequent interpretations were wrong all along.
The research, based on the Taino culture of the Greater Antilles in the pre-Columbian Caribbean, is published by Dr Bridget Waller, of the University of Portsmouth’s Department of Psychology, and Dr Alice Samson, of Leiden University, the Netherlands, in the latest issue of Current Anthropology.
Waller said: “The Taino used the bared-teeth motif as a signal of affiliation and benign intent. It was most likely their version of depicting a smile.”
The first European visitors to the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola in the late 1400s were the first to describe the bared-teeth expression they saw as the ‘devil grimace’. Some called it an abominable expression, deformed and ferocious and associated with malevolent deities who provoked fear and needed to be appeased.
Samson and Waller believe that these early chroniclers interpreted what they saw through a European, Christian point of view and had little or no understanding of the social context in which the expression was used.
The scientists examined human and primate smiling in an evolutionary context in order to better understand the meaning of the bared-teeth motif. “Our understanding of the social function of the human smile has increased enormously in the light of comparative data from other primate species,” said Waller who is a lecturer in evolutionary psychology and specialises in primate behaviour.
She said that the bared teeth display is common among social primates such as rhesus monkeys and chimpanzees, where depending on the species, baring teeth can be anything from a sign of submission or uncertainty to outright happiness.
She said: “Exposed and clenched teeth are not common features of aggression. Studies of facial expression in human and non-human primates have shown that the bared-teeth expression is used in social contexts as an unambiguous signal of non-aggression, affiliation and benign intent. Regardless of the specific context, baring teeth is most probably about social bonding.”
Anger and aggression, the scientists say, are characterised by widened eyes, tensed lower lids and furrowed brows. The prototypical human expression where the teeth are exposed and the jaw is not dropped is the smile.
The scientists say that the bared teeth motif is in fact a much more accurate depiction of a smile than the caricatured upturned curve commonly used as shorthand for a smile.
* Images courtesy of report authors, Lisa Parr, and Menno Hoogland, Museo del Hombre, Dominica respectively.
