Chasmology is the
scientific study of the yawn. Though its
official history started only recently, its
unofficial history stretches back to antiquity.
Aims
The aims of this short
essay are to broach the past and present of
chasmology and to propose a perspective of its
future. Particular emphasis is being laid on the
author's favourite theory: the hidden sexuality
of the human yawn.
Methods
Historical research and
literary analysis.
Results
The First Law of
Chasmology states that a yawn will be yawned (1)
if the yawner cannot do what he would like to
do, or (2) if the yawner must do something that
he would rather not do. The Second Law of
Chasmology, which is a special consequent of the
more general First Law, states that the yawn has
an erotic and even a sexual aspect. A critical
mass of proof for the validity of this Second
Law is derived from various sciences and
disciplines, ranging from theology and (the
history of) art to ethology and pharmacology.
The process of welding the Second Law produced
also chasmology as an emergent science, that is
a science that uses the data and information of
primary sciences to make a synthesis that
transforms and transcends the original scope and
results of the auxiliary disciplines. The Second
Law allows at least two concrete predictions
about future corroborations or refutations in
chasmological research.
Chasmology has a bright
future and may before long yield some surprising
results.
In science yawning has not received its due
attention. I realise a systematic-encyclopaedic
overview of all available knowledges about the
yawn. The fields from which I derive my data are
semantics and etymology, sociology, psychology,
the medical sciences (anatomy, physiology,
pathology, and pharmacology), and the arts
(literature, film, visual-arts). Then, I
associate a number of these data in order to
test the hypothesis : yawning has an erotic
side, yawning has a sexual aspect. As the total
amount of circumstantial evidence surpasses a
critical mass, I can, for the present moment and
until future refutation, assume this hypothesis
to be correct. Furthermore, I provide two
predictions about prospective scientific
research that will enable a more direct testing
of his hypothesis. Finally, the yawn is,
contrary to common-sense ideas, far from
trivial; yawning is an extremely complex and
significant behaviour. The yawn, and this
clashes even more with common sense notions,
appears to have an erotic side, a sexual
aspect.
