The Politics of Joking: Anthropological Engagements (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781138314047)

This book engages anthropologically with humor as political expression. It reveals how humor is in many instances at the center of human efforts to cope with political struggle and a significant key to understanding power dynamics in socio-political life. The chapters examine humor and joking activities across a diverse range of geographic areas and cultural contexts. The contributors consider humor as it is constituted in political anxiety, aggression and power, and when it becomes a tool to resist, repair, reconcile or make a moral claim. Collectively they demonstrate that humor can provide a powerful critique, a non-violent form of political protest and the space for restoration of human dignity.