You Didn’t Have To Be There: Evidence of Humour in the Creation and Use of Material Objects From the Near East, Eastern Europe and Mediterranean, From the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age

Bull, Elizabeth A. (2025) You Didn’t Have To Be There: Evidence of Humour in the Creation and Use of Material Objects From the Near East, Eastern Europe and Mediterranean, From the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age. Masters thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

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Abstract

When Malinowski said, “Anthropology is the science of the sense of humour” in 1966, the theories of the study of humour itself were still being developed, and yet he so clearly summarises why it is important to find our shared funny bones. Through humour we gain sympathetic understandings with each other in a way that goes beyond words; indeed humour may have preceded language in our evolutionary development and has been seen in primates. Such longevity of humour suggests it would have been found in pre-literate societies, such as in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern; areas where the marrying of two incongruous ideas can be found in ancient examples of ritual and/or art objects, a thought process facilitated by humour and perhaps even motivated by it. Therefore in this dissertation I seek to identify ancient examples of humour which I will explain and interpret using such theories as 'Benign Violation’ by McGraw & Warren (2010) and Apter’s ‘Reversal Theory’ from 1982. My aim is to explain why objects could have been funny and may have acted as powerful social tools, catering to our strong psychological drive to laugh. Drawing upon a number of interactive clay objects from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in the East Mediterranean I aim to demonstrate that these objects are perhaps the earliest tangible evidence we have for ‘jokes’.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	humour in ancient archaeology
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CB History of civilization C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D051 Ancient History D History General and Old World > DE The Mediterranean Region. The Greco-Roman World D History General and Old World > DR Balkan Peninsula G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Divisions:	Theses and Dissertations > Masters Dissertations
Depositing User:	Lizzie Bull
Date Deposited:	16 Sep 2025 15:08
Last Modified:	16 Sep 2025 15:08
URI:	https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/3905

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