Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Ceremony – La Plata, Argentina

Residence: La Plata, Argentina
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Castellano

“ Graduation in La Plata”

Matias Meli is a Fine Arts major at the National University of Argentina in La Plata, Argentina. He was born and raised in the city of La Plata, Argentina- a smaller city extension of the capital city Buenos Aires. He speaks English and a dialect of Spanish referred to as Castellano by its speakers.

Graduation from University in La Plata, Argentina is an important stage of development and is a highly honored achievement. University education is free of cost to all eligible students in the city of La Plata- therefore the courses of study tend to be extremely rigorous and only a small percentage of students enrolled in each course actually receive passing grades. When a student successfully graduates from the University, he/she is rewarded in a quite unusual manner. His/her friends and family generally attack him/ her with rotten food and beverages. It is a common scene to see eggs and whipped cream along with all sorts of mashed up foods on the grounds of the University campus as well as the clothing of the recent graduate. This sort of practice is seen as hazing, but is a necessary hazing in the cultural life of La Plata, a university-dominated city.

According to Matias, the graduation ritual of food attacks is an important practice, which represents the student’s transition from university-life to the working world. The practice of dumping disgusting foods on the recent graduate is a public display of accomplishment and the emergence of a successful working individual from the university system.

The practice of dousing recent graduates with sticky liquids and covering them with rotten foods is a visible expression of the lore held amongst the student body of La Plata. These students all share a common experience, the university experience in La Plata, Argentina. All students in that university are subject to the high demands and often times seemingly insurmountable expectations required for graduation, that it seems purely natural that some sort of outrageous demonstration of accomplishment would be customary. In a word, the graduation hazing of La Plata is a way that students connect with one another and honor the achievements of their graduated peers.

Etiquette – Germany

Nationality: Irish-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: St. Paul, MN
Performance Date: April 12, 2007
Primary Language: German
Language: English

Prost!

Cheers!

“When I first got to Germany and was 16 and was drinking beer because the legal alcohol drinking age is 16, people did this cheers thing before drinking. I thought it was just like what I’ve seen before in America and just clanked the glass and said ‘Prost’ back at my friends. Immediately after, they all commented on the fact that I did not look at them in the eyes and told me that I should always look people in the eyes when Prosting. Though they did not explain why, I imagine it was just a cultural tradition/etiquette thing. After that incident, I took my friends’ advice and did that every single time afterwards.  I realized everyone did really look at you in the eyes when Prosting and assumed that was probably a really important thing to do in Germany.”

The informant thinks it’s rather different from what we do here in the states in that it shows a more direct connection with one’s friends while drinking. It probably also emphasizes the way German people interact. Since looking away or indirectly at one’s eyes may indicate deceit or suspicion, it would only make sense that when toasting with friends, the least one can do is to make some eye contact.

Paradigmatically, looking at German culture as a whole, I think it makes a lot of sense that there is a lot of importance placed on drinking etiquette. Personally, I also find the eye contact fascinating because some cultures might actually take offense to that. While in Germany, toasting and looking directly at someone might signify friendship and honesty, perhaps in other cultures it might be considered rude to stare.

Etiquette – China

Nationality: Chinese-American
Occupation: Student
Residence: Hacienda Heights, CA
Performance Date: April 15, 2007
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

“When using chopsticks, one must never stick them in one’s bowl or food upright, so that it is perpendicular to the table. This is considered extremely disrespectful.”

I was born in China and imimigrated to the United States with my family when I was in second grade. I’ve been living in the states ever since and while I am ‘American’ in many aspects, I still retain many traditions and cultural ties which makes me uniquely Chinese-American.

As is true with most Asian cultures, respect, honor and ‘saving of face’ is closely associated with etiquette. There are etiquettes for almost everything, a ‘proper’ way to do this and that and table manners are no exception.  One particular table blasphemy I remember from childhood concerns chopstick placement.

There’s a reason why when one walks into chinese restaurants chopsticks are laid flat on the table. In the case of more ‘upscale’ Chinese dining, there are even chopstick stands where one can place their chopsticks so that the tips are slightly elevated from the table. It is considered disrespectful and wrong to stick chopsticks upright in one’s food or rice because this resembles what people would do with incense in front of graves to honor the dead.

Many Asian cultures burn incense at temples as a way to pay respect to the Gods. It is also used to honor the dead. Usually, one would take a burning incense between both palms, bow three times in front of whatever entity, be it a god or the recently deceased, then place the incense upright in a soft mount in front of either a temple, or a grave. Because the notion of sticking chopsticks upright in a ricebowl is so much like the incense procedure, that is why it is frowned upon. In fact, I’ve also heard of cases where people would literally stick chopsticks upright in food to leave food for the dead, so that the spirit can come back and use the chopsticks to eat.

Besides being disrespectful, since it’s almost like playing with food in western cultures, it is outright bad in the sense that it is morbid and associated with death. Especially if one’s dinner host is superstitious, it is best not to do anything crazy with one’s chopsticks.

Etiquette – Japan

Nationality: Japanese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oahu, HI
Performance Date: April 16, 2007
Primary Language: Japanese
Language: English

“In the Japanese culture, not only is it rude to stick chopsticks upright in your food, it’s also ‘bad luck’ when you go for the same piece of food or clash chopsticks. You are also not supposed to pass food chopstick to chopstick, if someone offers you food, you’re supposed to receive it with your bowl, not your chopsticks.”

The informant was born in Kanagawa, Japan, a bay area close to Tokyo. He grew up in Hawaii but still retains much of Japanese culture and traditions. As a child, the informant was berated by his parents when he played with his chopsticks at the dinner table. His parents told him that passing food and clashing chopsticks resemble what people did at funerals. In most Asian cultures, the dead gets cremated. After the body turns into ash, close relatives all pick out the bones with their chopsticks and pass them down until the bones get put in a special jar. When offering food to the dead, one would purposely put chopsticks upright in the rice so the ‘spirit’ can come back and eat the food with given chopsticks.  Thus, it is very disrespectful and looked upon as being bad luck when one places chopsticks in any of the aforementioned manners at a dinner table.

Since hearing these stories, the informant grew up respecting these traditions. He thinks these traditions are there for a reason and that when people mess around with chopsticks at a table, they’re defacing something sacred and disrespecting the dead as well as the dinner hosts.

I think this is interesting because all Asian cultures, Chinese, Japanese and Korean all have these ‘chopstick rules’. While I know you’re not supposed to pass down food chopstick to chopstick or clash with someone, I never knew the reasons why. It also speaks a lot about these cultures historically and geographically. It shouldn’t be just a coincidence that they all have the same traditions and superstitions.

Tradition – Japan

Nationality: Japanese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oahu, HI
Performance Date: April 16, 2007
Primary Language: Japanese
Language: English

Japanese:

?????

English Pronunciation/Romaji:

Toshikoshi soba

Literal meaning:

Cross year soba eating

Japanese:

????

English Pronuncation/Romaji:

Shimenosoba

Literal meaning:

Conclude the meal with sob

The informant was born in Kanagawa, Japan, a bay area close to Tokyo. He grew up in Hawaii but still retains much of Japanese culture and traditions. One tradition the Japanese practice during New Year is to celebrate the incoming year with ‘soba’, buckwheat noodles. Since noodles are long, they represent longevity. Longevity of family, of marriage, of life and of happiness. Therefore the tradition is termed “Toshikoshi soba”, cross year soba eating.

The second phrase, ‘conclude the meal with soba’ is where the New Year Tradition also takes its roots. It is a phrase with a play on word soba which people associate with closing out the old year and starting a new one. In this case, using soba, or noodles also makes sense because noodles are ‘stringy’ threading together the past and the future.

If one examines this practice histo-geographically, one can see that other Asian cultures also has similar traditions. Perhaps this is a monogenesis phenemenon which originated from one single region a long time ago.