h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I’ve started my new class this week, although I’m still not certain what possessed me to take classes during the spring/summer term. No worries though; this class is far too much fun to be considered hard work. It’s a topic very near to my heart, Cultural Anthropology. (Anthropology being the study of anything and everything to do with humans, and culture being very hard to define, something to do with learned and shared patterns of behaviours and beliefs (not to be confused with shopping at Harrods or growing bacteria under a microscope) )

My term research project is tea. Well, specifically High Tea in England and Tea Ceremony in Japan. For the academic minded, this approach is called an ethnology. It takes one aspect of culture and looks at it in more than one culture.

I’m allowed to use up to 20% of my sources as non-academic, so I was wondering what you know about either Tea custom (specifically about the people involved like age, social economic status, reason for having tea yadda yadda yadda; however, anything you know would help). I’ve been to both countries and am sad to admit that have never had High Tea or experienced the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

Ebert

When I'm done this project I can take what I've learnd and write an entry for the guide.

Tea

I've heard from several different sources that British high tea was started by an aristocratic wife who found that she was getting hungry during the late afternoon. I don't know if they had luncheon in those days or at what time that would have been taken, but they didn't have dinner until around 7.00 - 7.30 in the evening, so for a lady stuck at home all day with little to do, having lunch at say 1.00pm, then having to wait six and a half hours for another meal... I'd have gotten peckish myself if I had nothing to occupy my time.