A Tour of Unknown Parts

The Face: A Natural History
By Daniel McNeill

Book Description

From the Sphinx to Mona Lisa, from strangers in a crowd to the people we love, the face beguiles us. It is our social signature, our passport into the hearts and minds of those around us, and provides a constant flow of richly complex information. We rely on its signals, yet they form a language we cannot describe and may not even consciously notice.

In The Face, bestselling science journalist Daniel McNeill unravels these mysteries. He examines the face from many perspectives - physiological, social, psychological, evolutionary, and artistic - and creates a portrait that is as fascinating as it is illuminating.

Drawing on these disciplines, he explores the four great realms of the face: its anatomy, its singularity, its ability to communicate, and its beauty. McNeill begins with a guided tour of the face and each of its components. Why do we have a face at all? Why is it hairless, and how do beards benefit us? Why do noses jut out, and why do we, alone among creatures, have chins?

The face is the badge of our identity, and in a universe of faces, we can recognize a single one instantly. From the criminal in the police lineup to the image in the mirror, from masks to caricature, McNeill probes this ability and the meaning of facial identity itself. How do we instantly distinguish a male from a female face? Why are icons like Mao and Marilyn Monroe so powerful? Why do unknown faces like the Lone Ranger's tantalize us? What is the face of God?

We can convey an astonishing range of feelings and thoughts through our faces, with the pursing of the lips, the raising of an eyebrow, or the inexhaustible number of looks in our eyes. The Face explores this amazing expressiveness, examining the secrets of actors, theories of laughter, weeping, blushing, the evil eye, and more. What is the full range of meanings behind the smile? Why are stares so powerful? How does the face reveal a lie?

Beauty is a breathtaking enigma, and scientists still probe why it matters, and even what it is. McNeill investigates the allure of the face and the age-old quest to enhance it. What qualities make a face good-looking? Are notions of beauty culture-bound or universal? How do we judge people based on their looks?

Daniel McNeill has mapped the world of the face and its mysteries in a captivating transformation of one of the most familiar sights in everyday life.

A Tour of Unknown Parts

In his Travels (1356), Sir John Mandeville found the Andaman Islands rife with sensational beings. Headless humans strolled about with eyes and mouths on their chests. He saw noseless, sheet-faced citizens with punchhole eyes and lipless mouths. On one island, residents had a huge upper lip that shaded their faces as they drowsed in the hot afternoon. Elsewhere, tongueless dwarves with hard, grommet mouths sucked up food through a straw, and people walked about with ears that hung to their knees.

One scholar said Mandeville never traveled further than the local library, and it's almost certainly true. Faces like these inhabit the same realm as centaurs and flying monkeys, and for the same reason. They don't work.

The real human face is a glory of function, yet strange in ways beyond Mandeville's imagination. Indeed, it sets us apart from even the Neanderthals. For instance, it is flat, an extraordinary fact in the snarling animal world. Our mouths, noses, foreheads, and chins are almost unique. Males sprout beards and mustaches, unusual among primates. Our hair grows so long we regularly cut it, unlike any other creature.

It is a singular structure and it teems with subtleties. Indeed, it resembles a mansion full of invisible servants, little Ariels like the eyebrow performing tasks we never realize. It's also a zone of sensuality, of surging lips and gossamer hair, dancing eyelashes and pupils bright with sin. Such cues can be obvious, but they can also work sub rosa, spinning delight out of apparent air.

Of all items we see in daily life, the face most urgently needs a tour, for it is an enchanted terrain, one that both engages us and sedates the curiosity. From the eyes down to nose and mouth, and out to the frame of ears and hair, it is a playground of secrets. Some are shallow and some very deep, and the most basic of them goes back to the early days of animal life itself.

© 1998 by Daniel McNeill

About the Author

Daniel McNeill is a bestselling author and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for The Face. Mr. McNeill is the principal author of Fuzzy Logic, which won the 1992-93 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology. He has written numerous other books and articles on high technology, and his work has also appeared in fiction, travel, history, law, and education publications. He lives in Southern California.