Norbert Elias - The Civilizing Process. Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations

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December 2015, Epub Version: 1.0

Dedicated to the Memory of My Parents Hermann Elias, d. Breslau 1940 Sophie Elias, d. Auschwitz 1941(?)

Preface

Acknowledgements to the English Translation

Editors' Note to the Revised Translation

VOLUME I: CHANGES IN THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE SECULAR UPPER CLASSES IN THE WEST

PART ONE N THE SOCIOGENESIS OF THE CONCEPTS OF "CIVILIZATION" AND "CULTURE"

1 Sociogenesis of the Antithesis between Kultur and Zivilisation

in German Usage 5 I Introduction 5 II The Development of the Antithesis between Kultur and Zivilisation 9 III Examples of Courtly Attitudes in Germany | 1 IV The Middle Class and the Court Nobility in Germany 15 V Literary Examples of the Relationship of the German

Middle-Class Intelligentsia to the Court 20

VI The Recession of the Social Element and the Advance of the

National Element in the Antithesis between Koltor and Zivilisation 26

vi The Civilizing Process

2 Sociogenesis of the Concept of Civilisation in France

I Introduction

II Sociogenesis of Physiocratism and the French Reform Movement

PART TWC) CIVILIZATION AS A SPECIFIC TRANSFORMATION OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

I The History of the Concept of Civilit II On Medieval Manners

III The Problem of the Change in Behaviour during the Renaissance IV On Behaviour at Table

Examples

(a) Representing upper-class behaviour in fairly pure form (b) From books addressed to wider bourgeois strata Comments on the Quotations on Table Manners

Group 1: An Overview of the Societies to which the Texts

were Addressed Excursus on the Rise and Decline of the Concepts

of Courtoisie and Civilit A Review of the Curve Marking the "Civilizing"

of Eating Habits Excursus on the Modelling of Speech at Court Reasons Given by People for Distinguishing

between "Good" and "Bad" Behaviour Group 2: On the Eating of Meat

Use of the Knife at Table On the Use of the Fork at Table v Changes in Attitudes towards the Natural Functions

Examples Some Remarks on the Examples and on these Changes in

General VI On Blowing One's Nose

Examples Comments on the Quotations on Nose-Blowing VII On Spitting Examples Comments on the Quotations on Spitting VIII On Behaviour in the Bedroom

Examples Comments on the Examples

. :

89 92

97 99 I03 107

109 109

Content;

IX Changes in Attitudes towards the Relations between Mem and

Women X On Changes in Aggressiveness XI Scenes from the Life of a Knight

VOLUME II; STATE FORMATION ANI) CIVILIZATION

PART THREE FEUDALIZATION AND STATE FORMATION

Introduction

} Survey of Courtly Society II A Prospective Glance at the Sociogenesis of Absolutism

I Dynamics of Feudalization

I Introduction II Centralizing and Decentralizing Forces in the Medieval

Power Figuration III The Increase in Population after the Great Migration IV Some Observations on the Sociogenesis of the Crusades V The Internal Expansion of Society: The Formation of New

Social Organs and Instruments VI Some New Elements in the Structure of Medieval Society

as Compared with Antiquity VII On the Sociogenesis of Feudalism VIII On the Sociogenesis of Mimneyang and Courtly Forms of

Conduct

On the Sociogenesis of the State

I

II

III

IV

v

VI

The First Stage of the Rising Monarchy: Competition and

Monopolization within a Territorial Framework Excursus on Some Differences in the Paths of Development

of England, France and Germany On the Monopoly Mechanism Early Struggles within the Framework of the Kingdom The Resurgence of Centrifugal Tendencies: The Figuration

of the Competing Princes The Last Stages of the Free Competitive Struggle and Establishment of the Final Monopoly of the Victor

vii

187 187

195 195

viii The Civilizing Process

VII The Power Balance within the Unit of Rule: Its

Significance for the Central Authoritythe Formation of the "Royal Mechanism"

VIII On the Sociogenesis of the Monopoly of Taxation

PART FOUR SYNOPSIS: TOWARDS A THEORY OF CIVILIZING PROCESSES

f The Social Constraint towards Self-Constraint

II Spread of the Pressure for Foresight and Self-Constraint

III Diminishing Contrasts, Increasing Varieties

IV The Courtization of the Warriors

v The Muting of Drives: Psychologization and Rationalization

VI Shame and Repugnance

VII Increasing Constraints on the Upper Class: Increasing Pressure

from Below

VIII Conclusion

POSTSCRIPT (1968)

APPENDICES

I Foreign Language Originals of the Exemplary Extracts and Verses II Plates from Das Mittelalterliche Hausbuch

NOTES

INDEX

365 379 382 387 397 414

Central to this study are modes of behaviour considered typical of people who are civilized in a Western way. The problem they pose is simple enough. Western people have not always behaved in the manner we are accustomed to regard as typical or as the hallmark of "civilized" people. If members of present-day Western civilized society were to find themselves suddenly transported into a past epoch of their own society, such as the medieval-feudal period, they would find there much that they esteem "uncivilized" in other societies today. Their reaction would scarcely differ from that produced in them at present by the behaviour of people in feudal societies outside the Western world. They would, depending on their situation and inclinations, be either attracted by the wilder, more unrestrained and adventurous life of the upper classes in this society, or repulsed by the "barbaric" customs, the squalor and coarseness that he encountered there. And whatever they understand by their own "civilization", they would at any rate feel quite unequivocally that society in this past period of Western history was not "civilized" in the same sense and to the same degree as Western society today.

This state of affairs may seem obvious to many people, and it might appear unnecessary to refer to it here. But it necessarily gives rise to questions which cannot with equal justice be said to be clearly present in the consciousness of living generations, although these questions are not without importance for an understanding of ourselves. How did this change, this "civilizing" of the West, actually happen? Of what did it consist? And what were its "causes" or "motive

X. The Civilizing Process

forces"? It is to the solution of these main questions that this study attempts to contribute,

To facilitate understanding of this book, and thus as an introduction to the questions themselves, it seems necessary to examine the different meanings and evaluations assigned to the concept of "