Can’t Touch This! Cross Cultural Non-Body Contact Greetings to Use During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Figure 1: The beginning of the traditional Thai greeting (Image Source: Hugh Sitton/Corbis)

Special Note: this blog post was inspired by Victoria Sterling, who always strives to do what is right no matter the situation.

There is a famous saying that goes something like the following: “Life imitates art, and art imitates life.”  This phrase conveys the idea that often times art and life are mirrors of each other, drawing inspiration from each other.  This notion directly relates to today’s blog post, which was inspired by the current state of affairs the world is involved in (social distancing due to the Covid-19 Pandemic) and several people lamenting that they are not sure how to appropriately greet people through not touching.  These challenges present yet another reason for why anthropology can and is so useful because while the handshake or hug is considered the appropriate greeting among many American and Western cultural groups it is not universal.  Therefore, this blog post will list some alternative greetings that are much more common and appropriate in other cultural groups and that may work in place of body contact greetings during this period (or even after, particularly if you work with individuals from different cultures!)

• In Tibet individuals greet each other by sticking out their tongue.  This is considered a polite greeting to indicate that you are not the reborn, black tongued King of Tibet.
• In Thailand it is customary to greet people by putting your hands together (palms and fingers together, unclasped; see Figure 1) to your chest, bowing, and having your hands touch your face.  Probably not the best option given the strict instructions by various medical professionals not to touch your face, but you can easily modify this to a bow with your hands close to but not touching your face.
•  Among the Shona ethnic groups of southern Africa it is customary and polite to clap for someone in greeting. This can be a fun way to add a little positivity to greeting someone.
• Micronesians (of the South Pacific) use a simple raising of the eye brow to acknowledge someone’s presence.  This may be best for those working in quiet spaces or those who are introverts.
• In China individuals actually get on their hands and knees and bow to those who are superior to them.  In Japan a simple bow is all that is required regardless of status among individuals greeting each other.  Asians typically do not feel comfortable touching strangers, hence why they have developed a series of non-contact greetings.
• The Kanouri tribal group in Niger shake their fists and call “Wooshay!” to those they greet.  This could be a bit off putting here in the US since shaking fists has a whole other meaning here, but it could also be a fun way to release stress and anxiety at this time.

Please be aware that this post only shared the non-body contact greetings that exist around the world.  There are several greetings that do involve body contact but are not handshakes, including fist pumps and air kissing (the latter of which involves contact between people by their cheeks).  Again, as medical professionals suggest not coming into direct contact with people in order to slow and/or stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus I have only shared those that make the most sense given this sage medical advice.  Not listed here are some outdated greeting options, such as the curtsey, which I personally would like to see come back, but I doubt it will.  Also not listed are the greetings more specific to subcultural groups, such as the Vulcan greeting that many sci fi fans are most familiar with and actually has Jewish origins (Figure 2).  Whatever your preference you have some new ideas to accommodate the current social situation we are existing in while also maintaining important cultural and social expectations related to greeting people.

Figure 2: Vulcan greeting through a hand gesture derived from Jewish greetings (Source: Google Images)

References

Bryant, Sue. Every culture has a unique way of greeting people. 3 April 2019. Electronic. 23 March 2020.

Family Education. Gracious Greetings Between Cultures. n.d. Electronic. 23 March 2020.

Mitchell, Mary. "Modern Etiquette: Different cultures have different greetings." Reuters 6 August 2012: 1. Electronic.

Wong, Kathleen. "Showing hello: 15 ways people greet each other around the world." Mashable 15 March 2015: 1. Electronic.

Viking Shield Maidens Revisited…

Figure 1: Sample of Weapons Found in the Birka Warrior's Burial

Antiquity Publications Ltd./Neil Price, Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Torun Zachrisso, Anna Kjellström

In 2016 I wrote a piece about the roles of women in Pre-Christian Viking culture.  This post was inspired by recent interests in Viking culture, largely promoted by fictionalized television series and other popular culture interests.  At that time archaeological evidence suggested that women in Viking cultures occupied a variety of social roles, including but not limited to the role of warrior.  A year later this conclusion was further supported by new evidence, but there were critics within the archaeological community who were unconvinced.  Today’s blog post will address this latest evidence and how modern cultural views can and do affect archaeological interpretations.

In 1878 the Birka Viking burial was uncovered in Sweden.  This 10^th century (900s AD) Viking burial was considered a remarkable find as it contained a high-status warrior’s burial.  This individual was interred with a wealth of grave goods, including several different types of weapons (Figure 1), two horses, a game board associated with military strategies, as well as clothing reminiscent of a high status warrior.  At the time scholars immediately believed that the deceased individual was that of a man because in the 1800s women were believed to have only occupied domestic roles, and therefore it was unfathomable to the scholars that a woman could be a Viking warrior.  As previously reported Viking lore contains several stories of women occupying just that role, but scholars quickly dismissed these as myths, not facts.

In 2017 an article was published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology that caused quite the stir in the archaeological community.  This article claimed that recent paleogenetic evidence demonstrated that the Birka warrior was not a man as originally believed, but it was biologically a female.  This definitively demonstrated that shield maidens or warrior women did exist in Viking culture and they were not simply a myth.  Unfortunately, there were several members of the archaeological community who did not believe this evidence.  They claimed that the remains that were tested were not of the originally interred individual (a valid concern since the remains had been disinterred over a century previous), and there were also claims that the remains were that of a transgendered individual. 

The two scholars who wrote the original paper reviewed the criticisms and reanalyzed the entire burial, individual’s remains and grave goods included, and they returned in 2019 with a response to their critics in another paper published in the journal Antiquity.  In their latest piece they addressed how the grave goods in the burial demonstrate a high-status warrior, particularly the clothing, which is unique compared to other warrior’s burials.  They also point out that the burials location and the presence of a large stone above the burial made it viewable by land and sea, further supporting the high status of the deceased.  They also retested all of the remains present in the burial and further concluded again that they belonged to one individual and this individual was biologically a female. 

Most importantly, however, was the scholars’ conclusion that it is difficult to assess gender within archaeological contexts.  This is largely due to the effects of modern cultural views being impressed upon interpretations of the past, as well as a gap in knowledge of how the people of the past viewed themselves and what they culturally believed and valued.  They note that while the deceased individual could have been a transgendered individual it is impossible to know.  It is also impossible at this time to know if the Vikings had more fluid gender constructions as compared to our modern gender constructions or if they had multiple gender categories as seen in various cultures around the globe in the past and today. 

Ultimately, the original and follow up studies on the Birka Viking burial underscore a larger problem within the discipline of archaeology and anthropology generally: a lack of objectivity and representation.  It is widely known and acknowledged within the discipline that people are cultural creatures and they follow the cultural values that they are most familiar and comfortable with.  This is not a fault until it affects others, which is the case here with the original conclusion of the Birka warrior in that the original scholars assumed the warrior was a male without considering the possibility of a woman warrior.  The subsequent criticisms to the reanalysis of the Birka warrior also demonstrate how modern cultural ideas can affect archaeological interpretation, further demonstrating a need for greater cultural diversity (or at least more culturally relativistic viewpoints) among archaeological scholars.   Fortunately, the discipline of anthropology is in the midst of a paradigm shift that is encouraging more diverse viewpoints by the inclusion of different individuals into the field, as well as educating and promoting the inclusion of diverse viewpoints in anthropological interpretation.  This situation demonstrates the continued need for this paradigm shift, as well as the positive effects of this shift as it allowed for such conclusions to actually be published in the first place.  As this shift continues I suspect there will be more situations, such as this one, coming up, ultimately enriching our knowledge of the past and present and what exactly it means to be human (in all aspects).

Works Cited

Greshko, M. (2017, September 12). Famous Viking Warrior Was a Woman, DNA Reveals. Retrieved from National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/09/viking-warrior-woman-archaeology-spd/

Little, B. (2019, March 5). High-Ranking Viking Warrior Long Assumed to Be Male Was Actually Female. Retrieved from History.com: https://www.history.com/news/viking-warrior-female-gender-identity

Solly, M. (2019, February 19). Researchers Reaffirm Remains in Viking Warrior Tomb Belonged to a Woman. Retrieved from Smithsonian.com: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-reaffirm-famed-ancient-viking-warrior-was-biologically-female-180971541/

Uncovering the Mysteries of Queen Nefertiti

Figure 1: Bust of Nefertiti

Today’s blog post will address the mysterious past of Queen Nefertiti, one of Egypt’s most well-known queens (Figure 1).  The image of her iconic bust (housed in a museum in Berlin) has captured the attention of the public for generations, but very little attention is paid to her life and rule over Egypt.  This blog post will rectify that oversight and explore her life before and during her tenure as an Egyptian Queen.

Very few details are available about Nefertiti’s life before she married Akhenaton, Egypt’s heretic king.  It is known that she was not a direct relation to Akhenaton, which was uncommon among Egyptian royalty who often married siblings as per religious doctrine.  Some scholars believe that Nefertiti was the daughter of a prominent nobleman, while others claim she was a princess of another kingdom.  What is clear was that she was chosen by Akhenaton to be his wife, and she was deemed his favorite consort of all (as he had several). 

Upon elevation to the status of pharaoh, Akhenaton instituted a series of religious changes in Egypt that moved worship away from polytheism (the worship of multiple gods) to monotheism (the worship of one god).  These changes cascaded into several sociopolitical changes within Egypt, specifically in the realm of the royal family.  When Akhenaton canceled the acknowledgement of all but one of the Egyptian gods he elevated his and his family’s status to taking on the roles of those other gods.  This resulted in the elevation of Nefertiti to a goddess of fertility, beauty, sexuality, and creation.  According to Jacquelyn Williamson, a visiting lecturer at Harvard University, Nefertiti may have been regarded as the pinnacle of beauty and sexuality of the day, being held to as the standard of femininity that all Egyptian women were expected to strive to achieve.

Traditionally, in Egypt the pharaoh’s wife was meant to support her divine husband and his rule, but it appears that under this new religious order Nefertiti was elevated to equal status as her husband.  There are several images of her taking on authoritative roles, including worshiping the paramount god alone and her solely and bravely fighting off enemies of the state.  When Nefertiti and Akhenaton are present together in images she takes on a slightly smaller body build as compared to her husband, but they are always working together as, according to scholars, he lovingly looks on.  According to interpretation of Egyptian historical records it appears that Nefertiti may have also held similar responsibilities, power, authority, and status as her husband.  While Akhenaton commissioned the construction of temples for himself he also had one built for Nefertiti, to which would have enabled (or required) Egyptian citizens to worship and pay appropriate homage to her.  There is also evidence that suggests that she may have ruled after her husband’s death, but this is still debated.

Unfortunately, due to her husband’s infamous reign much of what could have been learned about Nefertiti was destroyed by Egyptian elites and priests in the years after his reign.  What little survived provides us some but not all of the details of her life.  Therefore a great deal of speculation remains, but what is known is that she was held in high regard at that time, embodying femininity, sexuality, and power.

References

History.com Editors. Nefertiti. 7 June 2019. Electronic. 20 December 2019.

Taronas, Laura. Nefertiti: Egyptian Wife, Mother, Queen and Icon. n.d. Electronic. 20 December 2019.

Vande Panne, Valerie. Nefertiti as sensual goddess. 18 November 2013. Electronic. 20 December 2019.