# Does Any Culture Not Clap (To Applaud)? Does Any Culture Clap To Indicate Something Else? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 17, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214 "2019-07-17T16:18:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/1 "2019-07-17T16:18:03Z")
The six-month-old baby that Mrs. Homie babysits has learned to clap her hands together, doubtless imitating her parents and siblings who taught it to her. It’s been a part of Western culture to applaud by clapping hands together for… centuries, I’m guessing? Is there any culture that doesn’t manually express praise by clapping hands together? Is there any culture in which clapping one’s hands together indicates something other than praise? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/2 "2019-07-17T16:21:00Z")
Some people [snap their fingers](https://www.simplemost.com/why-people-are-snapping-instead-of-clapping/) for applause instead of clapping. And sometimes clapping is used to get people to pay attention rather than as applause. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/3 "2019-07-17T16:31:51Z")
Depends on what you mean by “culture”–some uber-woke [think](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3323166/Some-college-students-Yale-Brown-prefer-finger-snapping-applause.html) [that](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/02/clapping-replaced-jazz-hands-student-union-amid-fears-noise/) clapping is too triggering and traumatic so they snap their fingers or do jazz hands. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/4 "2019-07-17T16:36:26Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Depends on what you mean by “culture”–some uber-woke [think](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3323166/Some-college-students-Yale-Brown-prefer-finger-snapping-applause.html) [that](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/02/clapping-replaced-jazz-hands-student-union-amid-fears-noise/) clapping is too triggering and traumatic so they snap their fingers or do jazz hands. I believe that “jazz hands” are also used to indicate applause withing the hearing disabled community. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/5 "2019-07-17T17:32:50Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Depends on what you mean by “culture”–some uber-woke [think](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3323166/Some-college-students-Yale-Brown-prefer-finger-snapping-applause.html) [that](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/02/clapping-replaced-jazz-hands-student-union-amid-fears-noise/) clapping is too triggering and traumatic so they snap their fingers or do jazz hands. I’ve never heard that reason given; always instead that to clap while the speaker is still speaking is disruptive but if there’s other ways of indicating agreement & approval that don’t create a sonic interruption the speaker can keep going. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/6 "2019-07-17T19:14:45Z")
> [@Alpha\_Twit](#): > > I believe that “jazz hands” are also used to indicate applause withing the hearing disabled community. Nope. You hold your hands at ear level, palms facing inward, and wiggle them on their vertical axis. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/7 "2019-07-17T19:22:38Z")
When I lived in China, people clapped. I was told the person being applauded should also clap back at the audience to show appreciation. Not sure if I ever saw that happening, though. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/8 "2019-07-17T19:35:14Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Nope. You hold your hands at ear level, palms facing inward, and wiggle them on their vertical axis. Thanks for the correction and I offer a sincere apology to those I may have offended with my rampant schmuckery. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/9 "2019-07-17T20:20:41Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Is there any culture that doesn’t manually express praise by clapping hands together? It’s hard to know for certain exactly when the practice started in different cultures: certainly it’s now universal among everyone exposed to western entertainment-media culture. [This article sez:](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/a-brief-history-of-applause-the-big-data-of-the-ancient-world/274014/) > [@](#): > > The Bible makes many mentions of applause - as acclamation, and as celebration. (“And they proclaimed him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, ‘Long live the king!’”) > > But clapping was formalized – in Western culture, at least – in the theater. “Plaudits” (the word comes from the Latin “to strike,” and also “to explode”) were the common way of ending a play. At the close of the performance, the chief actor would yell, “Valete et plaudite!” (“Goodbye and applause!”) – thus signaling to the audience, in the subtle manner preferred by centuries of thespians, that it was time to give praise. […] > > As theater and politics merged – particularly as the Roman Republic gave way to the Roman Empire – applause became a way for leaders to interact directly (and also, of course, completely indirectly) with their citizens. One of the chief methods politicians used to evaluate their standing with the people was by gauging the greetings they got when they entered the arena. However, this article discusses evidence for hand-clapping as both a gesture of applause and an expression of anguish or anger (sort of like our modern smacking-palm-with-fist) in the ancient Near East, both in the Bible and in Akkadian texts. The Sanskrit _Natyasastra_ on theater/dance/performance, from probably a century or two before the start of the Common Era, [describes the variety of audience reactions](https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.282399/page/n205) as smiling and laughing, various exclamations and shouting, and getting goosebumps, rising to their feet, lifting up their hands, etc. AFAICT striking the palms of the hands together is not mentioned in the context of audience appreciation, though it is important in marking time in musical performance. The 11th-century Muslim scientist and ethnographer al-Biruni in his treatise on India [mentions (p. 186) that pre-Islamic Arab communities used whistling on their fingers and clapping their hands as part of religious observance](https://ia801902.us.archive.org/17/items/alberunisindia_201612/alberunisindia-color_001.pdf), but they’re not used in Muslim observance. [Here](https://books.google.com/books?id=ea6yVYQ3y0EC&pg=PA70-IA7&lpg=PA70-IA7&dq=Jesuits+China+hand+clapping&source=bl&ots=YfkjXOwMGz&sig=ACfU3U0qzL1MmvlyTS0PEpvhkHEyw3Ipwg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6v6Kj4bzjAhVFmeAKHenjD0sQ6AEwF3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Jesuits%20China%20hand%20clapping&f=false) you have a 17th-century report from a Jesuit mission to SE Asia, in which local musicians combine hand-clapping with vocal and instrumental performance, but no indication that hand-clapping is used as audience appreciation. In short: beats the hell out of me when and how different cultures began to use hand-clapping as a group gesture of applause, particularly in the context of entertainment performance. That custom seems to be very well established in ancient Rome, but I’d be very skeptical of automatic assumptions (or fictional portrayals) of its universality in the pre-modern world. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/10 "2019-07-17T20:52:23Z")
I don’t know about clapping, but I do know that whistling at the wrong time at a soccer game in Latin America might get you killed (whistling=booing). ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/11 "2019-07-18T08:17:50Z")
Trump supporters seem to prefer chants to clapping. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/12 "2019-07-18T09:39:26Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > The six-month-old baby that Mrs. Homie babysits has learned to clap her hands together, doubtless imitating her parents and siblings who taught it to her. It’s been a part of Western culture to applaud by clapping hands together for… centuries, I’m guessing? > > Is there any culture that doesn’t manually express praise by clapping hands together? Is there any culture in which clapping one’s hands together indicates something other than praise? In Spain it is common to do it as part of the public’s participation in a concert, and not just for the Radetzky March. It is also one of the basic percussion instruments of flamenco. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/13 "2019-07-18T17:31:59Z")
[This article, “A Brief History of Applause”, in _The Atlantic_ should be of interest.](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/a-brief-history-of-applause-the-big-data-of-the-ancient-world/274014/) ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/14 "2019-07-19T06:32:16Z")
When I was a kid (in Arizona), school teachers would clab their hands to get the attention of the class or of a misbehaving child. In Aus, clapping is applause, but I would say that it didn’t use to be _respectful_ applause. I mean you wouldn’t clap at church – and probably not at some other occasions where you really wanted to show that you didn’t consider the ocassion to be a “performance”. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/15 "2019-07-19T13:08:07Z")
In Zimbabwe a brief clap is a gesture of thanks. There are two variants, straight handed (fingers on each hand parallel) for men, and cross handed (hands are more cupped, fingers on each hand at around 45 degrees to the other hand) Claps generally last only a few (5 or so) strikes. Of course, the western “applause” clap is now also common, but ululation (mostly by women) is a more traditional “applause” and is still popular. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Duality](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.duality/32/4098_2.png) [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-any-culture-not-clap-to-applaud-does-any-culture-clap-to-indicate-something-else/837214/16 "2019-07-20T13:53:08Z")
My wife says that in the Philippines clapping is the audience saying “you can go now.”