Every code of etiquette has contained three elements: basic moral duties; practical rules which promote efficiency; and artificial, optional graces such as formal compliments to, say, women on their beauty or superiors on their generosity and importance
In the first category are consideration for the weak and respect for age. Among the ancient Egyptians the young always stood in the presence of older people. Among the Mponguwe of Tanzania, the young men bow as they pass the huts of the elders. In England, until about a century ago, young children did not sit in their parents presence without asking permission.
Practical rules are helpful in such ordinary occurrences of social life as
making proper introductions at parties or other functions so that people can be
brought to know each other. Before the invention of the fork, etiquette directed
that the fingers should be kept as clean as possible; before the handkerchief came
into common use, etiquette suggested that, after spitting, a person should rub the spit inconspicuously underfoot.
Extremely refined behavior, however, cultivated as an art of gracious living, has been characteristic only of societies with wealth and leisure, which admitted women as the social equals of men. After the fall of Rome, the first European society to regulate behavior in private life in accordance with a complicated code of etiquette was twelfth-century Provence, in France.
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