Etiquette in Qonklaks

Etiquette in Qonklaks forms common social norms and expectations practiced in the Qonklese cultural area. Modern Qonklese etiquette is a unique blend between native practices and foreign elements from the rest of the international community.

Hospitality

Historically, there has been a complex series of rules regarding the dynamic between a host and their guests.

Hosting

Pseudobrosis

Today, it is common for hosts to serve food to visiting guests, even if their visitation is brief. However, this has not always been the case.

During the late Byàn dynasty, there emerged a trend of presenting inedible 'presentation' food to guests as part of a pseudobrotic ritual of having guests. Initially, guests would be served snacks by the host and a drink shortly after entering a home. However, as this practice began to become more ritualized, the snacks became more and more inedible. In the 16th century, snacks frequently consisted of dried foods that were not meant to be eaten. A guest is expected to eat pseudobrotically, where they would pretend to consume the item, and place it in their sleeve. When it was time to depart, the guest will return the food item in a small bowl placed near the entrance of the house. Pseudobrosis became more and more ritualized until the 18th century, where food items served to the guests were made from normally inedible materials, such as stones, minerals, and precious metals. Though, hosts were still expected to feed guests real food if they were expected to stay during meal time.

The extent of how ritualized pseudobrosis became can be seen in late 17th century to early 18th century banquet culture. Nobility were expected to host extravagant ritualized banquets to maintain their status, and these banquets involved a large portion of pseudobrotic items, which were merely a display of wealth. While lower nobility frequently recycled these items for later usage, higher nobility had the means to create novel pseudobrotic items for each banquet. In a banquet with twenty dishes, it was not uncommon for only two to be edible.

Metathene

As such, these ritualized banquets were often followed by the metathene, an after-banquet where real food is served abundantly to the now-very hungry guests. Contemporary documents described aristocratic pseudobrosis as a way to 'stimulate the senses' and 'enlarge the apetite'. In contrast with the actual edible items of pseudobrosis, metathenatic food is not meticulously decorated or plated, but hearty and flavourful, and often served in large containers where guests are free to serve themselves with however much they can eat.