Manners in Modern World History Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers key historical figures, concepts, dates, and terms related to the global history of manners and the civilizing process as discussed in Peter N. Stearns' lecture notes.

Peter N. Stearns

University Professor of History at George Mason University and author who argues for using manners as a framework for newer topics in modern world history.

Manners

Social guidelines that translate cultural values into practices that shape individual emotional and physical reactions, often expressing and enforcing hierarchies.

Civilizing process

A pattern, often associated with the Renaissance, where informal rules for personal decorum became more elaborate, self-conscious, and top-down.

Informalization

A 20th-century phenomenon where good manners relaxed on the surface, though the apparent casualness masked a range of detailed, subtle prescriptions.

Cas Wouters

A Dutch sociologist who leads research into how apparent informality in manners masks detailed prescriptions often instilled in childhood.

Bo Yang

A Chinese essayist who noted in 1985 that the biggest problem for Chinese people coming to the United States was the "excessive politeness of Americans."

ni hao

A Chinese phrase for hello that is not a traditional greeting but resulted from a two-century process of interaction with outsiders.

1842

The year associated with the start of Westerners using treaty ports in China, marking the beginning of deep cross-cultural interactions in manners.

Peter the Great

The Russian tsar who organized the country's first etiquette manual as a means of disciplining the nobility with Western manners.

The Honest Mirror of Youth

The first etiquette manual in Russia, which included warnings against "eating like a pig" and sniffing while seated in a circle.

William Trego Webb

Author of the 1896 manual "English Etiquette For Indian Gentlemen," designed to manage social interactions between Indians and Europeans.

Namaste

A traditional Indian acknowledgement involving a bow or inclination of the head, often preferred over the Western handshake.

Tokugawa period

The Japanese era during which manners guides began to thrive due to rising literacy levels before extensive interaction with the West.

Sayyid Qutb

An Egyptian radical who in 1948 expressed disgust at the informal behavior of Westerners at a funeral, viewing it as a lack of restraint.

Claude Fischer

A researcher who charted how the telephone and operator practices popularized the word "hello" as a courtesy greeting.

English time

A term used in regions like Brazil to refer to rigorous punctuality, reflecting the global impact of Western time standards.

1882

The year the discovery of the sources of tuberculosis occurred, prompting a global shift in etiquette against public spitting.

Sun Yat-sen

A Chinese leader who in 1924 appealed for a "civilizing process" to attack habits like spitting and farting to improve China's international image.

2008

The year of the Olympic Games in Beijing, which served as a catalyst for the Chinese government to ban public spitting and promote civility.

Guanxixue

A post-revolutionary Chinese social art involving gift-giving and intense personal relationships, reviving older ritual traditions.

Bowing

A gesture that declined in revolutionary societies like China after 1911 but persists as a sign of deference or apology in Japan and South Korea.

Chinua Achebe

A Nigerian writer who described the clash between growing individualism and traditional member-of-family manners during the 1920s.

Five courteous phrases

A Chinese campaign launched in the late 1970s urging the use of hello (ni hao), goodbye, please, thank you, and excuse me.

Erasmus

A Renaissance writer whose works provided early Western etiquette guidelines, including warnings against belching.

Business casual

A contemporary Western dress standard that exemplifies how informalization requires knowledge of subtle and complex rules.