Today I want to talk about Helga Kotthoff’s article titled Ritual and style across cultures.

Both play an
integral role in construction of culture, ritual can be seen as a social performance of collective
knowledge and sense making. Slide 1. There is an emphasize on its social functions, which are slide 2.
Rituals and style are an important topic to discuss since during crosscultural encounters they can lead to
misunderstanding and astonishment. I will generally discuss the ritual of gift giving and toasting,
enriched with data from Germany and former Soviet Union countries, especially from Caucasian
Georgia. Slide 3. Toasts are a genre known in myriads of societies. In the former USSR toasting
always had an outstanding importance and it continues to be so.

As I have already mentioned rituals can vary from simple gift giving to complex toasting. The west
likes to see itself as “antiritualistic”, however, when we get a closer look we see that everyday life is
full of interaction rituals. Let’s discuss ritual of bringing a gift. All cultures have special social
semiotics for behavior as a guest. For example. In Western Europe a guest would not bring red roses
as a gift unless it was for a lover. Neither would he bring red cloves since they are reserver for the
expression of solidarity on the first of May (Labour day) or eighth of March (Woman’s day). In
Germany no one would bring white chrysanthemums as it normally expresses grief related to death.
Once the gift is wrapped, the next problems in the semiotics of this ritual emerge. In contrast to
Western Europe, gifts are not displayed in China or Georga, where they disappear immediately in
cupboard or bedrooms. However, in western countries guest’s present must be unpacked and
explicitly praised. მაგალითი რას ვიძახით მიღებაზე. Gift presentation is ritualistic because it is a
routine social act achieving various symbolic aims.

As for the Style, it plays an important role not only in ritual communication. It is more that “the
frosting on a cake”. Style is the particular way in which uttarances and activities are performed in their
context of use. Styles and their alternations are used in order to signal and constitute various kinds of
meanings, for example, textual, situational, social and so on. There are two important tasks of
stylistic research – a) the description of the ways in which style and stylistic means are used to
constitute stylistic meanings and b) the analysis of the kinds of stylistic meanings that recipients
perceive and interpret. In all areas of intercultural communication style is a relevant dimension
which may be the origin of social difficulties and conflict. Usage of style often determines directness
in topic development. Conversation style signals varies in many cultures this is why an example of it
within United States was very interesting in the paper. While listening to something, NYers will talk
quickly, with short quiries and “machine gun questions” as an encouragement to the story teller to
tell more, however, Californians interpret them as a signal to the teller to come to an end. So a speech
style also creates a certain keying.
We move on examining the speech genre of toasting to show the interconnection of style and ritual.
In the paper it is pointed out how a pathetic style of toasting ritual creates a religious sphere for the
dinner table society in Georgia. In other formerly Soviet republics the ritual was also carried out in a
pathetic style but without prayer formulas. Western people, in contrast, practice toasting as a form of
supporting “positive face needs” ( for example, thanking, congratulating and so on).

When a foreigner enters Georgian ceremonial “supra” he or she is transformed to a situation

unfamiliar with their perception of having drinks and enjoying a meal. Supra might have quite a few
various purposes and this fact sets the frame for the evening’s interaction, the toasting genre. After
the wine has been poured toasting scenario begins, no wine is drunk until a toast has been uttered.

It is rather usual to start toasting to wish God’s favor. Tamadas often invoke religious formulas like “I
bless you all” “and may god give his favour to everyone” the start of the toast is clearly marked by a
formal and ceremonial manner of speech. At the end guest say “praised be” (adidos). There many
“Amen”s in the toast, so in Georgia prayer is in a way a genre that borders closely on toasting. A
round of toasting ends normally when all participants have seconded with “gaumarjos”

In Georgia, great importance is given to pathos-laden communication but this kind of pathos marked
form of presentation is seen as normal and is not felt to be bombastic. Georgian toasts are full
emotion. In Them social qualities of people are often made publicly visible. Georgian guests and their
hosts expect positive mention of their families or native regions as a sign of politeness, as well as for
decesead members, it is very similar to politiness standards in Japan and Greek cultures, when a
person is positioned in relationship to his social group.

An often made explicit compliment in a toast is that someone is a good Georgian. Being Georgian is
seen as a moral value. By contrast, in Germany, “Germanness” doesn’t represent a recognized alue, at
the best eurpoeannes can fill this role. Person who proclaims their “Good Germanness” unavoidable
assume political stance associated with rightist fringes of political spectrum.

Second theme and style of Georgian toast can be honoring parents, for which the author uses data
from intelectuall’s gathering supra. Like the first example, this one also starts with conventional
formulas like “I want to offer you a toast, and ceremonial vocabulary is used like “earthly god”

Russian-Kazakh toasts discussed in the paper are much different stylisticly from the ones of Georgia,
since they have very formal and unemotional pathos.
As for the similarity, they all unify expression of praise. The speakers display high emotional
involvement which is meant to be shared by auditors and it is affirmed in the clinking of glasses and
drinking.

We can conclude that in Georgia and other countries of the former soviet union, toasts play a much
larger role in communication honor and respect than they do in western Europe. The toast honors
not only the person toasted but his or her entire social network, including deceased relatives. A
shared meal has an implicit religious dimension in Georgia, which we can note that is considerably
different to west. In other countries of the former USSR as well, a pathetic style that Westerners
often smile about is practiced with the genre, however, for Georgians it was important in the Soviet
era to distinguish themselves from other Soviet people, and one possibility to communicate this
distinction was achieved by including a religios dimension in their toasts.