ABSTRACT
Social scientists have used a number of terms to describe a state recognized as felicitous and conducive to a stable and repetitive interaction: togetherness, conviviality, empathy, intimacy, grace, immediacy, harmony, and so on. The fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous has been an object of anthropological study, and a number of studies, books, and articles have been devoted to its investigation. It is also present in another and very different setting, that of the Japanese tea ceremony, an institution originating in Zen Buddhism. The chapter shows that equality and its moral and psychological expression of reciprocal humility were relational modes of interaction sought by actors. Humor or laughter is considered by anthropologists and folklorists as legitimate objects of study whenever it arises as part of an institution, such as the ritual clownery of the Hopi Indians. A sense of humor has been recognized by almost all authors among the Inuit.
