In many cultures, bowing to one another is a gesture of respect, and carries other meanings too. If you are not from such a culture, do you

consider it beneath you to bow to another person?

When I served in the US Marine Corps, I had contact with people from all over the world, and I spent many years in various locales all over the Pacific.  In addition to my overseas time, I was stationed in Hawaii for over five years, and several different places throughout California.  Whenever a military unit is about to enter a foreign country, there is a briefing given to explain the customs and cultures (don't give tips in country X, it's considered disrespectful, don't extend your left hand towards a person, never make direct eye contact because it makes them uncomfortable, when someone pours a drink for you using one hand on the glass and the other on the vessel, it's the highest form of respect, so accept the glass with both your hands, do not place a glass upside down to indicate that you don't want a refill, never place the butter knife on the plate after you have used it, place it on the table next to the plate, always ask how a person's parents are doing in country Y, when paying a bill, never place bare cash in a person's hand, use an envelope instead, take your shoes off when entering a house, etc.).
  When it came to the custom of bowing, we were told that people in many Asian countries know and understand that bowing is not an American custom nor a Western custom, and that they would understand if we did not bow, or did not know how to bow properly. HOWEVER, if a person from that country bows first, failing to return the bow is tantamount to rejecting an offered handshake.  A polite nod of the head sufficed in place of an actual bow, but even then it had to be done in a certain way.
  Unfortunately, and this is what jogged my memory of this and prompted me to write this treatise, there were a few young Marines whose attitude was, "I ain't bowin' ta NOBODY, especially no d****ed Jap, hell, we won the war, not them, and they're the ones who started it by bombing Pearl".  (Mind you, I began my military service in the 1980s, not the 1950s or 1960s.)  There were some, well, let's say "unenlightened" young chaps, to say the least.

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