Norbert Elias - The Civilizing Process (1978)

Elias in his book 'The Civilizing Process' provides accounts of books of etiquette and table manners from the 13th to 19th centuries. He suggests that the removal of these things has been taken to show that society is becoming less civilized. Perhaps however civilization is always just a veneer beneath which our lesser demons are held in check. The thickness of the veneer depends on how much we buy into it.


Elias contends that the modern condition implies a collapse of an eating community as a structuring principle of social life and also manifests a tendency to a marginalisation of the meal. He asks the question. If the consumption of food has been increasingly deregulated in this way, if shared meals have lost their importance and if food is consumed increasingly in the form of snacks, to what extent does this represent a reversal in the civilizing process?

However, less formal does not necessarily mean less civilized, but perhaps it is true that the less communal meals become the less influence they have as structuring principle. What has this to say to the church and its shared meal of communion?