Body Hot Spots
The Anatomy of Human Social Organs and Behavior

by R. Dale Guthrie

Preface

What you are about to read is a new mixture of behavior and anatomy. Together with the study of paleontology and physical anthropology it has merged into a new unified discipline called Human Social Anatomy. It attempts to explain how our bodily appearance influences how we behave and vice versa. For there are some basic biological roots to this interaction, although it has received very little study until recently. It is a book on the reevaluation of the origins and evolution of our body form that we use socially, and there are many organs which are displayed mainly for social purposes social organs. Not through any logical design but through oversight and tradition these have not been the view of the anatomist, nor have they been within the sphere of the ethologist, for one group deals with organ systems and the other with gestures.

Personally, I found the concept of social organs to be an entirely different way of looking at humans, and I think it will be for you as well. So here are some new views about your body and your attitude towards it and the bodies of others.

My many thanks to David Klein, Michael Fox, Valerius Geist and Frederick Szalay for their helpful comments and for many enjoyable discussions. I am particularly indebted to George Narita for his encouragement and editorial expertise.

R. Dale Guthrie

Contents

Part One: How Social Signals All Began

  1. What Our Body Hot Spots Are All About
  2. Social Status and Behavior
  3. How We Use and Show Our Social Organs

Part Two: The Look, Smell and Feel of Menace

  1. Full Beards and Weak Chins
  2. Odor: The Rankness of Rank
  3. Highbrows and Lowbrows
  4. The Bald and the Blond
  5. The Love and Menace of Hair

Part Three: The Anatomy of Sex and Beauty

  1. The Nobility of High Cheekbones: The Biology of Beauty
  2.   The Phallic Threat: Giant Penises and Similar Threat Devices
  3.   The Female Lure: Rumps and Legs
  4.   The Female Figure: "Broad Where A Broad Should Be Broad"
  5.   Automimicry: Big Boobs, Ruby Lips and Pendulous Noses

Part Four: The Organs of Social Revealment and Concealment

  1.   The Open and Closed Heart
  2.   Goggles and Shades
  3.   The Stiff Upper Lip and the Moustache
  4.   The Montana Face

Part Five: The Social Organs of Seniority

  1.   Up and Down the Age Scale
  2.   Hoary Heads and Whitewalls
  3.   Neoteny and the Naked Ape
  4.   Leathernecks, Pimples and Smooth Baby Bottoms
  5.   Redskins, Fair Ladies and Dark Wenches

Part Six: Social Anatomy and Human Values.

  1.   Clothes as Social Ornaments
  2.   Social and Physical Dirtiness
  3.   Excrement Communication
  4.   The Rank Races
  5.   The Art of People Watching: The Informed Heart

Bibliography

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Body Hotspots is copyright © 1976 Litton Educational Publication. This web text is posted by permission of the author.