The Civilizing Process by Norb

Books (on etiquette) were expensive but disseminated vital information to the nobility, which had a need to know the socially acceptable codes of behavior at court. Each concept addressed a specific society at a given time. The 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.

Elias’s pursuit to understand the transformation of the concepts by which different societies have tried to express themselves has lead him to recognize human societal evolution or the civilizing process. 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). One must keep in mind that “the process of the civilizing of speech may serve as a reminder that the observation of manners and their transformation exposes to view only a very simple and easily accessible segment of a much more far-reaching process of social change” (Elias 92). For the elite to be the “elite”, they needed some form of mannerism to distinguish them from the commoners (marks of distinction between classes). Erasmus himself makes explicit references to class; “To dip bread you have bitten into the sauce is to behave like a peasant…” is one example of a textual class distinction, prevalent of that time (Elias 50). The book, never equaled by another in precision, clarity, or frankness was used as a valuable resource to Elias.

Erasmus’s book was about the behavior of people in society. Seeing as the poor could ill afford such expenditures they were last to develop proper manners. This treatise was a “symptom of change, an embodiment of social processes,” which left enormous amounts of information on socially acceptable behavior of that time to be studied (Elias 48). During the Middle Ages the table setting consisted of drinking vessels, salt-cellar, and a “well-cleaned knife” on the right, with bread on the left (spoons used commonly, folks rare in standard home of the time). Meat would be brought in, cut and taken in hand or on bread for consumption.