Etiquette

Essay : [Etiquette]

English Essay on "Etiquette"

Etiquette

Etiquette is a system of rules and regulations defining good form or "good manner" in social public or official behavior. It originally applied only to conduct in court drc1es, but the code has been extended to provide guides for everyday living.


The word "etiquette" is derived from the old French "estiquer", and that, in turn, from the old German "Steichen", both of which are verbs meaning "to stick" or "affix" some etymologists conjecture that centuries ago regulations to be observed at court (0(, possibly, in a barrack) were pasted or stuck to a support or wall and eventually became "I 'estiquet" (the rules of the day), whence "etiquette". In France to-day, however, the code of polite social conduct is generally termed the rules of knowing how to behave. In 'English speaking countries, such rules, whether they are guides for ceremonies or deal with ordinary social conventions such as setting a table, are generally classified as etiquette.


An offender faces no formal trial of sentence for breach of etiquette; the penalty lies in the disapproval of other members of the group. Regardless of its level of material culture “any highly stratified society will possess an etiquette in which every person knows the behavior expected from him toward others and from others toward himself.


Etiquette is the glass of basic rules of politeness, but it is influenced by local or regional customs. For example, etiquette requires that an honored guest be placed next to the host or hostess, and custom dictates what side that shall be. In most of the western world it is the right side, but in Scandinavian countries it is usually the left side, and in the Orient or Asian countries it is always the left.


Regional custom determines the manner of the greeting when acquaintance meets. In southern Europe close male friends often embrace, as in Asia and Middle East. In' Middle East countries male friends usually kiss three times, while embracing. In several European countries a lady rises to extend a hand in spontaneous greeting or when introduced and in some of these countries. a gentleman may raise her hand to his lips.


According to beadnell the origin of kiss can be traced to Vedic: India (2000 B.C). He presumed that it started from the nose kiss. From India, remarks Beadnell, the kiss in one form or another appear to have spread east to China and West to Persia, Greece and Europe in general. In the Kamasutra of Vastsayana, we find vivid descriptions of various varieties of erotic kisses, each with its particular name like the nominal kiss, the touching kiss, the throbbing kiss, the bent kiss, the pressed kiss, kiss that --kindles love, transferred kiss, demonstrative kiss, clasping kiss etc. Child is widely kissed by mother and near ones. In the Holy city of Makkah, Hajra-i-Aswad, installed in Holy Kaaba the only stone is being kissed every moment since thousands of years.


Customs, which may reflect deep-rooted cultural mares, are handed down from generation to generations on the other hand, etiquette, which began as rules of protocol and precedence often arbitrarily conceived by rules to protect them from contact with lesser person, may change swiftly, responding to the' voice of a social arbiter or to economic and fashion trends. (4essay.blogspot.com)


The first book to call its contracts rules of etiquette was "The Fine Gentleman's Etiquette"; published in 1776. However the etiquette book did not really nourish until the 19th century, with the advance of the Industrial Revolution. The old distinctions between "superiors" and "inferiors", once accepted unquestioningly and so we understood that only occasionally did they need to be repeated in earlier conduct books, now required sterner safeguards.


The early purpose of etiquette, once it moved outside of royal and aristocratic circles and began to be applied to ordinary social life seems to have been the protection of the upper class.(4essay.blogspot.com) "Etiquette is the barrier which society drawn around itself as a protection, a shield against the intrusion of the impertinent, the improper, and the vulgar a guard against those obtuse who, having neither talent nor delicacy', would be continually thrusting themselves into the society of men to whom their presence might be offensive and even insupportable", say the book "Etiquette" published in 1836.


Etiquette books explained the rituals and rules followed by 19th century upper class society. Thus, new comers to wealth were aided in concealing their social inexperience. They could learn that only" silver forks were deemed correct at "respectable" tables and a spoon correct for conveying peas to the mouth. A knife in the mouth Never! although this was not only common place among the lower middle class on both sides of the Atlantic but also permissible at most aristocratic tables in Germany, an example of how etiquette rules can differ. Napkins were not absolutely necessary, and if hosts did not provide them, a gentleman was permitted to use table cloth or his handkerchief.


Japanese etiquette requires that shoes be removed before one enters a home, but Chinese do not remove their shoes. At Japanese tables it is bad form to top rice with other food while Chinese heap their foods on a bed of rice.


In the Middle East, customs still dominates Bedouin dinning' etiquette. The hand (preferably the right hand is used in eating and the communal pat is dipped into by hand. According to Islamic school of thought it is best to eat by right hand. Many modern societies in Asia also in Pakistan follow the rules of Western behavior and used standard cutlery and requiring procedures.


American proponents of etiquette fought to establish some ceremony in the young republic a difficult task at first in a land where titles class distinctions, and rules of precedence were disavowed. Americans still harnesses manners to morals and practices the simple rules of virtuous conduct extolled in the behavior books that-preceded the etiquette book; The majority rejected English and Continental formalities as undemocratic, freely introduced strangers, exchanged public greeting spontaneously between sexes, scoffed at calling cards, and often preferred the knife to the fork as a feeding tool.


In some ways American etiquette has grown more relaxed, but in other ways, noticeably more detailed. The etiquette of wedding progressed from a simplicity that could be summed up in a few paragraphs to elaborate details requiring 60 to 80 pages in standard etiquette books.


Etiquette today is based on common sense and consideration of the other person. Since the framework and context of the communities of which society is formed are constantly changing, the habits of etiquette can and do change with them.