Book Description

'A fabulous read' - Gillian Tett, author of Anthro-Vision: How Anthropology Can Explain Business and Life 'Learned but witty' - Nigel Barley, author of The Innocent Anthropologist: Notes from a Mud Hut An entertaining anthropological tour through the big answers to life’s little questions. Why do farts evoke laughter and disgust? Is the aversion to the left hand universal? Are dogs really humankind’s best friend? Why do we tip wait staff but not teachers? In Silent but Deadly: The Underlying Cultural Patterns of Everyday Behaviour, Kirsten Bell, an anthropologist who has lived in five countries on four continents—and learned about cultural gaffes by constantly committing them—places our everyday behaviours under the microscope. Boldly going where no anthropologist has gone before, no topic is too small or insignificant for Bell’s attention, whether it’s washing machines in kitchens, buying rounds at the pub, toilet paper, or searing. The kind of book Jared Diamond might write if he was more concerned with the meanings of bodily emissions than the collapse of civilizations, Silent but Deadly deciphers the cultural patterns that underlie our everyday quirks, foibles, and habits.