Greetings: Their Genesis and Cultural Significance in a Civilised Society

Social interaction forms the unit of social analysis since the turn of sociological analysis from positivism to interpretive sociology. Most interactions begin with a light form called greetings. While there are more serious interactions that take into account the questions of one’s social and historical position in society, greetings are rather less immersed in such considerations. That does not mean that greetings do not involve elements of hierarchy and other cultural norms. The whole idea of manners within civilisation as expounded by Norbert Elias seems to be coded around norms of interaction based on the particular position one holds within the cultural setting. Styles of greetings not just depend on social status; in fact they are also determined by the time of the day and occasion. Thus this paper is an attempt to scrutinise various nuances of greetings in human civilisation.