Introduction
Rituals are an integral and important measure of organizing social life in a community. First, they refer to the visible action of a person calling on everyone who is present to pay attention to some phenomenon or fact and also express a certain emotional attitude.
Certain principles define a ritual: firstly, the generally accepted conventionality of action; secondly, the social significance of the phenomenon or fact on which the ritual is concentrated; and thirdly, its special purpose. Thus, the ritual is designed to create a single psychological mood in a group of people, to call them to active empathy or recognition of a fact or phenomenon. According to Hobson et al. (2017), “in rituals, the most ordinary of actions and gestures become transformed into symbolic expressions, their meaning reinforced each time they are performed” (260). One can consider that each of the huge variety of world cultures, being the result of the activity of one or another ethnic community, has its own specific rituals. These rituals depend on the geographical, historical, economic, and other conditions for the formation and functioning of the community itself.
U.S. Rituals and Their Functions
The culture of a community manifests itself primarily in a specific self-organization, in forms that are not similar to the forms of other communities. A narrow understanding of the meaning of culture is an active, creative activity aimed at the distribution, creation and consumption of human spiritual values. In the broadest sense, culture is the process of forming an ecological, political, educational, economic worldview. Moreover, culture creates normative boundaries for the people’s relationships between themselves, to themselves and other nations, where the latter is represented in cultural assumptions. Thus, culture organically interacts with the nature in which it was formed, is one with it, and is focused on preserving its identity. The culture of a community also implies the development of uniform rules of behavior, especially for specific situations.
A good example of such uniform behavior is tipping the waiters at eating establishments. It is quite interesting that the tradition of rewarding the waiters for good service is not common around the world. In America, however, tipping a server is an absolute necessity because servers’ usual wage amounts to only $3 an hour. Thus, restaurants often make it a point in the cheque to remind their customers about tipping the waiters.
This tradition was brought to the New World in the 1860s from Europe, where feudal lords threw coins to servants for outstanding services since the Middle Ages. Following the example, wealthy Americans sought to demonstrate their aristocratic manners and generously poured coins into restaurants and bars. The emergence of the new tradition also coincided with the abolition of slavery in 1865. Former slaves were hired in the service industry, and employers often simply did not pay them a salary – because customers would still leave a tip for the service. Restaurateurs were especially fond of this practice, so they quickly spread it throughout the country. From there, the manifest function of tipping arose – when one tips the server, they are possibly helping them pay their bills. Even today, servers in America who are receiving tips are still basically just getting paid by customers due to very low wages.
The latent function represents the notion that if a server provides an exceptional service, customers should reward them with about 20-25 percent of the final bill. However, this kind of customer behavior is more common at expensive restaurants visited by people who can afford such rituals more easily. Another latent function example is the opinion that tipping servers encourages racism, sexism, harassment, and exploitation. It claims that the culture of tipping feeds inequalities: between those who work in expensive and inexpensive restaurants and hotels and between those who work in the hall and those who work in the kitchen.
Non-U.S. Rituals and Their Functions
Tipping is officially prohibited in China – it stems from the country’s cultural code and traditions. For a long time in Chinese history, tipping was seen as a form of humiliation: it showed the waiter that the customer was wealthier and more well-set than them. It is important to remember that Chinese culture is very different from European or American: cultural values and norms here grow from a mentality and history that is opposite to the Western countries. Thus, almost everywhere in China, individuals should not be tipping their servers; however, an exception can be made in cities attracting a lot of tourists like Hong Kong. This points to the influence brought by the Western culture, as the cultural assumptions from foreigners overrode the traditional ritual of non-tipping.
The manifest function of this ritual of non-tipping is to show the waiter one’s respect and gratitude through one’s behavior towards them. In turn, the latent function demonstrates the concept that money is earned by hard work, and to give it away unnecessarily shows one’s irresponsibility and weakness of character. Thus, to the present day, tips have not yet become commonplace in Chinese restaurants and hotels, although they are sometimes accepted in high-class establishments. It should be remembered that the initial refusal to accept tips from the server is an integral part of the ritual practiced nationwide.
Proposed Research Study
A good research design to use in the case of studying tipping rituals in different cultures would be the observational study technique. This technique refers to qualitative and non-experimental studies, during which the researcher observes, records, and analyzes a specific concept or notion in society, culture, attitudes, and behaviors. There are two population samples to be addressed: first is the sample of waiters from different countries who can offer their attitude towards tipping; age and gender are not relevant there. The second sample could be more specific: it would consist of people who visit food establishments often and their tipping behavior and could be sorted by age, gender, or cultural belonging. Thus, the study would require a qualitative format: the number of respondents is not as relevant as the content of their answers.
Conclusion
Human behavior within the boundaries of various cultures is subject to the norms developed in each specific society. These norms are presented in the form of a set of special standard programs – rituals, which are the stereotypes of behavior. The sustainability of culture and its viability is largely determined by how developed the structures that determine its unity and integrity. This refers not only to semiotic connections, with the help of which the fusion of heterogeneous spheres of culture is achieved. The integrity of culture also implies the development of uniform rules of behavior, a common memory and a common picture of the world. It is on these integrating and stabilizing aspects of the functioning of culture that the action of the mechanism of tradition is directed, which is based on the process of stereotyping experience. The predictability of an individual’s behavior that rituals provide contributes to the social integrity and cohesion, and offers a sense of unity for the members of the commune that practices it.
Works Cited
Hobson, Nicholas M., et al. “The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework.” Personality and Social Psychology Review, vol. 22, no. 3, 2017, pp. 260–284., Web.