Etiquette’s origins can be traced back to the early time of human beings.
The essence of etiquette is the way of dealing with the relationship of human being’s intercommunication.In the beginning,prehistoric people learned to behave in ways that made life easier and more pleasant for one another.Gradually, they developed the rules for proper social conduct.A mass of historical research proves that etiquette,as an element of culture,was generated along with the human interactions and intercourses.The habitual language,posture and action,shared among the members in an identical tribe during the process of their daily gathering,hunting and everyday life,sprouted the primitive etiquette.For example,they would summon to look after mutually,when they escaped from the forest fire or the attack of the prey beast,For the necessity of the social communication,on the one hand, the primitive people began to pay attention to their appearance,enclosing fig leaves,putting on the sloppy skirts,adding on decorations and beautified stuff on the clothing and so on.On the other hand,they also started to take correct behavior to please the other people,keeping a suitable distance from each other in a collective hunting,talking rumors about the games to prevent their partners from feeling frustrated even if the action had gained nothing.
For the people from different tribes,they likely adopted some generally-accepted language,expression or posture in order to obtain trust,forgiveness and cooperation from the opposite party.And all this deportment would be considered as the initial forms of etiquette.The handshake probably originated when early man started to extend his right hand—the weapon hand—as a sign of friendliness and peace.A person presented forward his right empty hand to show he wasn’t holding a weapon; in return,the other man extending his own empty hand to show that he also was unarmed.Therefore,a handshake meant they were going to talk instead of fight.