ETIQUETTES

I believe that etiquette is a matter of cultural tradition. Perhaps there was a practical reason why our ancestors adopted one form of behavior over another, but in most cases its long forgotten. We follow the "rules" we learned from our parent and family as children, unless we are uncouth, careless, or there is a good reason to change customs. Whatever the customs of our culture, they are no better or worse than the customs of a different time, place or culture.

In the West we shake hands (proving we are unarmed, LOL), and in the East one bows. As the world gets smaller in terms of communications and ease of travel, we can count on encountering differences more often than in earlier times when people lived their entire lives out within a few miles of where they were born. New customs are forming all the time, and out descendants might wonder why we ever adopted such seemingly strange and useless modes of behavior.

you posted this twice