jethrien

Title: Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behavior
Author: Kate Fox
Genre: Anthropology
Thingummies: 5

Synopsis: An in-depth, gently humorous examination of English behavior by an English anthropologist.

Thoughts: At its worst, anthropology can be extremely condescending, analyzing other cultures as if they were animals. But at its best, the discipline explains the very meaning of what it is to be human and live in human society. Fox neatly sidesteps the first to embrace the second by turning her trained gaze on her own culture.

And so we get an examination of why one doesn't speak to fellow commuters, the English substitution of home pride for social skills, the liminality of the pub, and pea-eating's role as a shibboleth. She narrows down on the English view of the world, an attitude that assumes everything will turn out poorly but one mustn't complain, in which humor and not appearing to take anything too seriously are of paramount importance. And because she herself is English and cannot help herself, she writes the entire thing with a self-depricating wit that is delightful.

Some of her insights have helped me finally figure out some puzzling interactions I've had with British coworkers. Others merely articulate things that I myself do without quite thinking about it. As has been noted by others, New Yorkers and the English (and the Japanese) share the concept of negative politeness--that pretending you're alone on the subway car and not meeting the eyes of fellow pedestrians is not an indication of rudeness or aloofness, but an entirely different set of manners created by people who live on a very crowded island, so that they can handle being surrounded by people all the time without flipping out and killing them all. The Midwesterner who tries to strike up a conversation with strangers on the subway is being actively rude in the environment. (One should not hold that against them, anymore than one should take seriously an inadvertantly crude hand gesture made by a foreigner where it's obvious that no harm was meant, but it's still rude. Hopefully, the New Yorker accosted with inappropriate friendliness and the Brazilian who's just had an American make an OK sign will be tolerant and confine themselves to a private eyeroll.)

There are breakdowns of the class meanings of what time someone eats dinner, what they call a meal in the later part of the day that has tea involved, and what specific departments someone buys things from in Marks & Spencer. Given that American culture has some parallels but fewer strong definitions for class, it's a fascinating comparison.

In the end, she is able to codify English behavior, but not explain it. I wish she had been a bit braver--I think that England's history as having been repeatedly invaded, having several layers of class composed of foreigners, being considered a cultural backwater for quite some time before suddenly finding themselves in command of the world stage only to lose it once more, and the aforementioned fact of being a small, crowded island does much to explain some of the national character traits. Unfortunately, only the last is discussed. Nevertheless, it's a deeply insightful book that sheds a lot of light not only on the English, but also by comparison on some of their cousins.