Social distance maintained by etiquette or replaced by spatial segregation undergirds hierarchy

Evidence

All social forms are defined to some extent in terms of the dimension of interpersonal distance. Some forms, like conflict, bring distant people into close contact. Others, like secrecy, increase the distance between people. Some forms organize gradations of vertical distance, whereas others are forms for organizing horizontal distances. Forms like the stranger and fashion entail distinctive combinations of both nearness and distance. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 81 (#expands, via linked claim)

It should be noted that not only the equal, but often precisely the unequal, relation of the subordinates to the dominating head gives solidity to the social form characterized by subordination under one individual. The varying distance or closeness to the leader creates a differentiation which is not less firm and articulate because the internal aspect of these relations to him often is jealousy, repulsion, or haughtiness. The social level of the individual Indian caste is determined by its relation to the Brahman. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 332 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Occupational and status divisions structurally limit who city dwellers can know — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 77; The rising middle class could not afford the elite’s strategy of spatial self-segregation; Group size needed for privacy varies with setting norms and spatial dimensions (+12 more)

Related

• Seating distance from strangers encodes unspoken interaction signals with systematic rules (similarity 0.95)
• Unequal distance to a common head rigidly differentiates subordinates (similarity 0.88)
• Social forms can be classified by the interpersonal distances they create (similarity 0.87)
• Group size needed for privacy varies with setting norms and spatial dimensions (similarity 0.86)
• Social distance is functionally required wherever authority or stratification exists (similarity 0.83)
• Stratification systems necessarily create social and spatial distance mechanisms (similarity 0.81)
• Stratified societies employ social and spatial distance mechanisms to maintain status boundaries (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Social forms can be classified by the interpersonal distances they create #expands (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 81
• Unequal distance to a common head rigidly differentiates subordinates #exemplifies (0.60) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 332