The Civilizing Process by Norb

Summary: The Civilizing Process by Norbert Elias Social scientist, Norbert Elias, examines in part two of his book, The Civilizing Process, the development of manners and the subsequent ‘civilizing’ of Western Europe since the middle ages. This journey in time is an attempt to understand what actually happened to humanity during several transitional periods. Elias perceives the development of western civilization in three historical stages. (From the middle ages with a progression to the renaissance (…

…process of becoming civilized depends profoundly on the conditioning and internalizing of acceptable behaviors; society as a whole slowly and laboriously internalized developed mannerisms originating for the upper class, and spread them orally. “The close parallel between the “civilizing” of eating and that of speech is in this respect highly instructive. It makes it clear that the change in behavior at table was part of a much larger transformation of human feelings and attitudes” (Elias 99).