Guest Post by Sean Carey
Don’t kiss the Queen! Officials at Buckingham Palace instructed guests, who were due to attend the wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton, not to attempt to touch or kiss the British sovereign.
Historically, almost all of those who have broken the taboo have paid a price.
In 1992, the British tabloids dubbed the then Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating, the ‘Lizard of Oz’ after he placed a hand on the Queen’s middle back at a public reception. There was another rumpus when his successor, John Howard, was accused of a similar misdemeanour at Canberra’s Parliament House in 2000. Intriguingly, US First Lady Michelle Obama was not pilloried in the same way when she she put her arm around the Royal upper back at a Buckingham Palace G20 reception in 2009.
So when is it okay to touch the British sovereign?
The custom that prohibits touching or kissing the Queen is not an absolute. Whenever a transaction occurs, it seems that the crucial point is that it reflects and maintains the social status and social distance of both parties.
The night before the Royal wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton, a gala dinner was held at the five-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park for members of the British Royal family. Guests also included some of their counterparts from overseas – mainly royals from Europe, but also those from more distant parts of the world, including the Sultan of Brunei and his wife.
According to press reports, the Queen arrived “fashionably late” to meet members of her own flock and the other royals. When I watched the evening news bulletin on the BBC it was impossible not to notice the kisses bestowed on her cheeks by an immaculately coiffed, flame-haired woman in a long flowing robe. The kisses offered to the British monarch were followed immediately by a curtsy. Familiarity and subordination were thus simultaneously conveyed through the combination of gestures.
But even more intriguing: who was the woman who was permitted to kiss the British monarch? It turns out that the evening’s host was Lady Elizabeth Anson, founder of the UK-based events company, Party Planners, and the Queen’s first cousin.
anthropologyworks 