Thanks to shoe thrower Muntander Al-Zaidi, the world at large now knows exactly what to do next time someone gets our goat up in downtown Baghdad. Before the infamous incident with George W. Bush, few of us might have been familiar with the intricacies of international gestures of disgust. Not so any more.

Whether you’re headed for Mosul or Madrid, exhaustive travel guides and sweeping regional histories will get you only so far. If you want to go truly native, you need to know how, with the flick of a wrist, you can insult and offend your hosts at will.

Let’s start with the shoes. In Arab culture, you rarely if ever display the sole of your shoe to another human being. If sitting, shoe wearers are expected to keep feet firmly on the ground and never cross legs, ankle-on-knee style. Shoes are considered unclean in ritual terms in the Muslim faith, evidenced by the fact that wearing shoes inside a mosque is forbidden. Beyond the Islamic world, in many Asian countries, including India, pointing the sole of your foot at someone, whether sitting across from them at a dinner table or cross-legged on a deserted beach, is also looked upon as highly insulting.

Therefore, throwing your grubby sole at a person is considered an extreme insult. What you are saying, in effect, is that the receiver is no better than the dirt on the ground.

Ouch.

In Thailand, if you really want to insult someone, then touch them on the head with your shoe or sock. Similarly, patting someone on the head will also rile the natives to no end.

In most countries, insulting gestures don’t move beyond the hands. For example, a V-sign can quickly turn into something all the more insulting if a hand is turned or someone is standing behind you. A more vulgar version in southern Europe involves one arm slapped to the upper arm and a hand raised in a fist. If four fingers are thrust toward you in Japan, you can take it that your hosts are not exactly enamored with your presence, whereas in Pakistan, a single raised closed fist has some unpleasant phallic connotations.

In the Philippines, if you curl one finger and use it to beckon someone, you are indicating they are lower than a dog. But use it sparingly: If you do this, the offended person can have you arrested and as part of the punishment, have your finger broken.

Even the straightforward “thumbs-up” sign can get you into trouble. In parts of Africa, South America and Greece, the sign can have a negative meaning, the same in Iraq and Thailand, where it. means in effect, “Up yours.’’ In Iran, the sign is known as “bilakh’’ and effectively means, “Sit on this.’’

In India, anyone with the shakes after a heavy night should take extra care. Doing a thumbs-up and wagging your hand from side to side means you are telling someone you profoundly disagree with them.

In America, a circle sign where the forefinger meets the thumb is generally taken as meaning “OK.’’ Not so in Turkey, Malta or Brazil, where the sign means you are comparing someone to a part of their anatomy (guess which?).

One of my personal favorites originated with that most cultured of civilizations– the Byzantines– and is still in use in Greece today. It’s called the “moutza,’’ and is an open palm gesture which refers to the ancient practice of visitors throwing excrement at chained prisoners. So sensitive are the Greeks to the sign, that any outward hand gesture is a considered a cultural no-no.

The significance of what has been dubbed by headline writers as a “Shoe-acid bombing” will not have been lost on George W. Bush. In 2005, during his second inaugural parade, he held up a fist with the forefinger and little finger extended. It was related to a school mascot where he comes from, the University of Texas Longhorns, and meant “Hook ’em horns,” but in the weeks following the gesture, he was publicly chided for the signal.

Not every country, it seems, attaches the same meaning to the sign. In Italy, it can imply a man is having an affair and is considered insulting. In popular culture it’s often used by heavy metal fans when greeting their longhaired heroes. Norwegians have a slightly different slant, with the gesture often used as a sign of the devil– a cultural inference President Bush will most certainly want to duck.