Sverige
According to a Swedish manual of etiquette, a Swedish man should bow deeply from the hip, with a straight back (picture to the left), when meeting a women. This gave him at the same time a splendidly stiff, almost robot-like expression. The woman should receive the kiss on the hand with the same straight back and the mien of a ruler. Obviously, the behaviour of the man and the woman was not symmetrical, e.g. there was no eye contact.
Norge
According to a comparable source, – a contemporary Norwegian book on etiquette (picture to the right) –, meetings between Norwegian men and women were more symmetrical and egalitarian, and less formalised. Both the woman and man used the same gestures, taking each other's hand and looking into each other's eyes. There is no (pseudo-) submissive bowing. Their clothes are plainer (street dress and fur instead of evening gown and tail coat). The cover of the Norwegian manual on etiquette indicates where the reason for the more formalised and distanced gender roles was to be found, i.e. pre-modern, court society.
Varieties of National Habitus seen through the eyes of German Refugees, 1933-1940. A systematic comparison. (En liten sida ur Nordic notes)
Den här bloggen är avslutad. I över 10 år höll den, men det blev rätt sporadiskt mot slutet. Jag bloggade länge, och man ändras som person med tiden, så eventuella åsikter jag har gett uttryck för kan vara inaktuella. Det KAN vara så att jag tycker tvärtom numera. Men jag låter det ligga. Det är lite kul med ett halvprivat tidsdokument.
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