In most Asian countries, coughing up phlegm and spitting it out is considered part of a normal everyday health routine. Men and women alike can be heard each morning “coughing up oysters”. I guess when you think about it, it makes sense to spit this goo out rather than leave it clogging your throat or (yuk) doing the old re-swallow. My question is; how did this become such a unacceptable thing to do in the Western world? Why are most of us grossed out when we see somebody spit in public (or indeed why have we all been taught to find this gross)?
Maybe the distinction lies in the place where these people spit. In some asian countries, people are seen to do this at places where people eat. Obviously, it would affect your appetite some way or other. Even in other public places, I’m sure it would have been possible for these people to resort to more private places (even toilets would be more acceptable).
I have a feeling that some people are more offended by this than others, similar to the way some people can be offended by someone blowing their nose loudly.
There seems to be a general rule that disposing of any of your bodily fluids in public is rude. Except tears.
Well, although its not considered disgusting per se, I think if you cried in public you would get some stares too.
it is disgusting and VERY unhygienic. Sanitary conditions in China are awful and this is one reason. People spit anywhere and everywhere.
Unfortunately I can’t track down the cite, but I believe that the social (and in many places legal) condemnation of spitting came from efforts to control tuberculosis: highly contagious, often deadly, and spread by coughing, spitting, or sneezing.
Other reasons:
Reasonable priced floor coverings:
Chewing tobacco (especially popular in the 1800’s) caused a godawful mess - you spit out the expectorant into the nearest spitoon, assuming your aim was good. If your floor was sawdust or even plain wood, it could be relatively easily cleaned - it might even add “character” to a untreated wood floor. Public buildings, with marble, tile or concrete floors, could also survive until cleaned (if they ever were). When rugs became more affordable due to mechanization, aim did not improve. Rugs might have been cheaper, but they sure as hell weren’t free. Remember the scene in the Godfather II where they steal the rug? Imagine what would have happened to Don Vito if Mrs. Corleone saw him spitting tobacco juice on the nice new rug.
Cigarettes
Our friends in the tobacco companies were nice enough to send millions and millions of free cigarettes to our soldiers in World War I. This depositioned chewing tobacco as the poison of choice. Cigarettes were much more “refined” (at the time, they were aimed at women - Marlboro was especially popular among the ladies). None of that disgusting spiitting, and you would still get a slow lingering death.
The Flu of 1918
If you travel in the NYC subways, you will see the “no spitting, no coughing” signs, which were originally meant to fight the flu epidemic of 1918.
I collect old etiquette books, and spitting was frowned upon as far back as Castiglione’s “Book of the Courtier,” from the Renaissance. Certainly in 18th century books, spitting is decried as disgusting and unhealthy. By the way, spitting on the street is illegal in New York—I’m amazed Giuliani didn’t crack down on THAT!
And I second the thought that anyone who spits in public should have their face ground into it.
No kidding, you should see some countries in Asia, particularly China and the countries where the Chinese have a strong presence. You’ll see people hawking up a roll of slime over and over until it must weight half a kilogram, and then they splatter it on the ground right next to where they are standing–wherever they are standing. I suspect the culprits are mostly the uneducated masses, because in Beijing they do not behave in this manner at all.
Spitting is against the law in many places, because it spreads diseases like tubercolosis so easily. In Hong Kong there is a problem with immigrants from mainland China, who take all their habits with them to Hong Kong. For the most part, the Hong Kong Chinese look on with disdain when the Mainlanders walk around spitting and littering everywhere.
It’s a serious problem. In Hong Kong there are still outbreaks of cholera and tubercolosis. The fact that it is the most densely populated area in the world and just north of the tropics are part of the reason, but bad habits such as spitting are no doubt major factors. The fine for spitting in Hong Kong is (theoretically, although I have never seen anyone get nailed with it) a whopping 700 US dollars.
As to why spitting is rude, it could (at a stretch) be an evolutionary adjustment: groups that stop spitting all over the place survive, those that don’t are crippled by tubercolosis and assorted diseases.
[WAG] Perchance it came about at the same time doctors began washing their hands before surgery?[/WAG]
The book “A History of Manners” (if I crrectly recall the title) traces the evolution in European societies of how spitting progressed from being perfectly okay anywhere to unacceptable virtually everywhere. It was more to do with nicer floors than with any concept of hygiene, as the prohibitions preceeded concepts of germs by centuries.
Bucky
So in Ancient Rome, when you had those cool mosaic floors in the villas, you were expected to go out to the Expectorium to spit?
Hard for me to read this and not think of Josey Wales. Spit = My balls are ten times as big as yours.