shaking hands

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by birch, Apr 24, 2017.

  1. DrKrettin Registered Senior Member

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    169
    I suspect this is because shaking hands is part of a social ritual, but sprouts are not. Especially amongst friends.

    Hey - why is "amongst" flagged as a spelling error? Did Trump decree it to be illegal?
     
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  3. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Business associates, too, and all kinds of organizations. It's a ritual of recognition and respect: much like saying "You are my peer."

    I very much doubt Trump is aware of spelling, let alone a word like amongst.
     
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  5. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    I read somewhere that it was conceived as a custom to show you are not holding a weapon--from a more violent time in history. I like a good handshake. It's a dying custom. I'm still trying to understand the idea behind the knuckle bump, when two guys bump fists. It's real common at work. In fact, I participated in one today.
     
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  7. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    A preemptive wave often does the trick.
     
  8. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    I suspect it's one of the variations on the conventional handshake that arose from masculine in-groups, such as benevolent societies, clubs,
    athletic teams and college fraternities, who wanted to have a 'secret' or exclusive greeting for members only.
    These little rituals always get out; others think it's cool and imitate it; it's picked up by some celebrity and demonstrated in public, where it becomes a fad.
     
  9. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    As I mentioned, Howie Mandel had a hand in popularizing and promoting it. He's a germophobe.
    i.e. at least for many, it's not a fad - but a hygienic alt to a handshake.
     
  10. DrKrettin Registered Senior Member

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    169
    Which as I understand is why the Japanese bow instead of shaking hands - they used to carry their swords on their backs. And I shall never do the knuckle bump - people might mistake my nationality.

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  11. Equinox Registered Senior Member

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    Even in the animal world, touch has been observed as a form of social boding, there are also biochemical reactions to touch (even a handshake) which release certain chemicals engendering social interaction.

    From you're other posts it appears you do not like socialisation very much (which is fine, everybody is different) - but if everybody in the world was like yourself (no handshakes, no kisses on the cheek ect) I would personally find that world very cold and very awkward, perhaps that is the world you live in at the moment?
     
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  12. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Now, that's interesting. We can smell fear and anger on one another's sweat. Two men getting close enough to rub skin oil on their palms is a means of assuring that the other feels no hostility; showing that we're not afraid of him.
    I have to think this may be why, until quite recently - as the roles of women in society changed - handshaking was an exclusively masculine greeting.
    Women had different ways of greeting one another and of greeting men - the latter, mostly without touching. Even in the upper-class offering of a lady's hand (to hold lightly and brieftly, to kiss, or to bow over without clutching) she would most often be wearing gloves. In that period, so did gentlemen: most of their hand contact with one another was not skin contact.
    Something to mull over.
     
  13. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    As someone else mentioned, it was my understanding that handshaking was the signal you were not wielding a weapon.
     
  14. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, that's the start. Then, showing that you dare come so close; that's both confidence and trust - after all, lots of people can kill or injure with their bare hands. Then, showing that you're friendly; not hostile or fearful.

    Modern people don't normally carry weapons in their hands: for two centuries now, they've had firearms - and for centuries before that, bows and arrows, which kill at a distance. The only thing you're showing you don't have is a knife or brass knuckles - and, I suppose, that you won't reach for the Colt in your holster.
    So, that aspect of hand contact should have declined or gone out of style. It must, therefore, be other aspects that have not only kept it in practice, but spread it wider and extended it to women.
     

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