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greetings, especially if joint cognitive attention turned momentarily to focus on
participants engaged in this topic 'overspill' (e. g. 'Are you two still goin' on about
that? '/ Mein Gott, Redet lhr immer noch ... ? [My God, they're still talking
about ... ]).
In terms of their signalling of the beginning and ending of sociable
gatherings, mutual ratification of participation status (Goffman 1981), and
signalling of general solidarity, greeting phases in both milieus seemed
remarkably similar. However, there were some marked differences in the
playing out of these phase. Both arrival and departure phases in German
sociable gatherings were marked by high levels of mutual attentiveness to both
the gathering and each other as ratified participants (Goffman 1981). Male,
female and even child participants all systematically shook hands, often quite
vigorously. Eye gaze and accompanying smiles tended to be mutually fixed for
several seconds, even when the verbal pleasantries had been completed.
Further, this one-to-one greeting had invariably to be carried out between every
participant, with a failure on the part of one participant to greet another being
usually explicitly referred to ("Heinz, du hast Kurt nicht gegrclat" [Heinz, you've
not greeted Kurt]), and unhesitatingly remedied by an immediate and slightly
exaggerated handshake accompanied by a mild expression of chagrin on the
part of the offender. In arrival phases, German hosts, or, if busy with food,
guests as proxy hosts, unhesitatingly asked guests to "Setz dich hin" [sit
yourself down]. This was accompanied by a pronounced collective shuffling to
signal a concerted effort to make physical space for any newcomer(S)2
. During
departure phases collective sentiment was invariably expressed as to the
enjoyability of the gathering, and mentions for possible 'next meetings' were
made.
In general, it seemed that greeting phases in German demanded a
concerted and involved effort on the part of all participants to signal both jointly
and individually their aliveness to the sociable situation and alignment to the
requirements of sociability. Such phases were explicitly oriented to and
constituted a 'participant delineated' and fundamental phase of the gatherings.
By and large, English greeting phases were much more low key affairs, and
appeared almost non-committal when compared to the German equivalents.
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