Introductions are a similarly serious business in the Japanese yakuza, which has its own "unique forms of greeting and identification... When two yakuza meet for the first time, each of them will take up a pose. Stepping forward slightly, bending his legs, putting his clenched fist on the right femur, and stretching out his left arm each will recite at length his place of origin, present residence, the name of his oyabun, and his own name in stilted archaic language. When he has finished, the same type of greeting is repeated by the other party" (Iwai 1986: 223). This practice derives from the artisans of feudal Japan; that does not mean, however, that these formal procedures can be dismissed as a "residue of past customs," as the author asserts.

XREF: Relates to rituals of identity and group belonging — parallels organizational initiation and formalized greeting practices across cultures.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 936