Anne Storch's edited volume offers a holistic and cross-culturally informed approach to the study of the relationship between language, interiority, and society in the ‘Global South’. It describes how emotions are mainly expressed through metaphorical embodiment and in the form of paralinguistic realisations (Angelika Mietzner). Emotional expressions are regulated by sociocultural norms of etiquette, channelled through ‘ritualised communication’.

The contributions reveal that emotions are often either totally suppressed or expressed indirectly. In Hausa culture, for instance, there are strict ritualised codes of conduct that regulate how to interact with elders, in-laws, and leaders. A woman ‘eying’ a co-wife ‘up and down’ is the only accepted gesture to express contempt towards her while a ‘loud jeering laugh’ can express a sense of triumph (Izabela Will). In Wolof society in Senegal, gazing might provoke conflict if it is intentional and persistent (‘evil eye’). Conversely, ‘inattention’ might be rude (Jules Jacques Coly). In Cherang'any, Kenya, the circumcision rite requires children to suppress their emotions, and a political leader is not supposed to be emotional in public (Mietzner). In the Trobriand Islands, public mourning can be regarded as a social duty to comfort the bereaved and to escape blame (Gunter Senft). Committing an unethical act might involve loss of self-esteem or social ostracism, and hence necessitates cleansing.

The chapters also outline how emotions can have a strategic and performative function. In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Javanese youth (who are marginalised) use coping strategies to avoid police harassment, such as polite Javanese language, smiling, averting the gaze, or bowing (Thomas Stodulka). While some Indonesian leaders define their position through recourse to ritualised expressions of anger, others resort to ceremonialised expressions of ‘humility’ and self-pity (Joel C. Kuipers). Trobriand Islanders use strategic ambiguity (biga sopa) as a manoeuvring tactic to disclaim utterances that might offend others, and hence manage to ‘preserve face’ (Senft).

Finally, the volume looks at how emotion, sacredness, and secrecy are governed by power relations and identity construction. For example, gestures in Jamaican, such as ‘Kiss-teeth’, can be deployed as a marker of identity and a way to express the speaker's attitude or negotiate a moral standing (Andrea Hollington). In Nigeria, Pindiga men use Hone to connect with their ancestors. Their accounts of ruined memory sites are invested with commemorative agency and superiority (Anne Storch). Similarly, Goemai Nigerians ‘tend to use language that is considered intelligible only to insiders in order to avoid the articulation of open dissent or the use of insider knowledge by others’ (Birgit Hellwig). Likewise, ancient Egyptian funerary and religious texts used strong decorum to conceal the feelings of the protagonist (i.e. the pharaoh, the deceased) from the illiterate public (Sven Eicke).

This book demonstrates that emotions are internalised sociocultural processes and strategies used to construct group identities, semioticise marginality, build connections to emblematic spaces and temporalities, and negotiate, engage, or communicate consensus or dissent in the public space (in the sense of face-preserving/threatening acts). The ‘ritualisation’ of emotions regulates social conduct in a way that ensures the predictability of behaviour. This can also create social harmony and normalise social differences by stabilising the emotional status quo.