
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Why are some things cute, and others not? What happens to our brains when we see something cute? And how did cuteness go global, from Hello Kitty to Disney characters? Cuteness is an area where culture and biology get tangled up. Seeing a cute animal triggers some of the most powerful psychological instincts we have - the ones that elicit our care and protection - but there is a deeper story behind the broad appeal of Japanese cats and saccharine greetings cards.Joshua Paul Dale, a pioneer in the burgeoning field of cuteness studies, explains how the cute aesthetic spread around the globe, from pop brands to Lolita fashion, kids' cartoons and the unstoppable rise of Hello Kitty. Irresistible delves into the surprisingly ancient origins of Japan's kawaii culture, and uncovers the cross-cultural pollination of the globalised world. If adorable things really do rewire our brains, it can help answer some of the biggest questions we have about our evolutionary history and the mysterious origins of animal domestication.This is the fascinating cultural history of cuteness, and a revealing look at how our most powerful psychological impulses have remade global style and culture.
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Information
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures
- Introduction: Hello Kitty Guards the Road
- 1: Ancient Japanese Cuteness
- 2: The Border between Wild and Tame
- 3: Cuteness in the West
- 4: Kawaii in the Hermit Kingdom
- 5: Growth in Reverse: Neoteny and the Neural Crest
- 6: Cute Attains its Modern Meaning
- 7: The Evolutionary Substrate of Cuteness
- 8: Kawaii in Contemporary Japan
- 9: Are We a Self-Domesticated Species?
- 10: The Future of Cuteness
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgements
- Index
- Copyright