But something else did happen. Many sociologists, anthropologists and historians have used Elias' theory of the civilizing process. As their point of departure for their own empirical and theoretical studies. Let me give you a few examples of studies that could have been done, and a few studies that actually have been done. Elias takes as his example, as you know now, the civilizing process in Europe between, well, let's say, the late Middle Ages and the period around the French Revolution. But one could do a similar study, focusing on ancient Egypt or ancient Greece or ancient Rome. Elias was personally very interested in African culture, but his book focuses on Western Europe. Why not study civilizing processes among the Mayans or among the Aztecs? Why not write a study about civilizing processes in Japan? When we were students of Elias in Amsterdam, we always wanted to know what that professor thought of contemporary developments. Did he have any ideas about the sexual revolution, that we found ourselves in the middle of? Didn't he think that the process in which the naked body had to be hidden, was now something of the past? Elias was always amused and intrigued by our questions. And he didn't shy away from discussing them with us. But he was reluctant in giving answers. He said it's a bit too early to make judgments here. Maybe in a few centuries time, sociologists will be able to say what the so-called sexual revolution really meant. But when we were enthusiastically talking about the nude beach, for example, as an empirical case that seemed to show to us, that a civilizing process had come to a standstill, maybe even those reversed. Then, our professor was not at all convinced, the people on those new beaches had a lot of impulses to control, he said. They allowed themselves and each other, to let go of some of the traditional behavioral controls. But this process of decontrolling those controls, was actually a very controlled process. Those discussions about the applicability of the theory in contemporary society, have lead to all kinds of sociological studies. Let me mention one author, the Dutch sociologist Calsvalters, who has made those questions the subject matter of his PhD. And later many new books followed, written by Calsvalters, some of which are translated into the English language. And then of course, there is that hard question about the implications of the civilizing process for the power balances, between social groups. An interesting subject, is how the higher classes in society in the 20th century, tried to civilize how to say, the lower classes. Elias said, you may remember that, that in the period that he studied the process of civilization, was not organized unplanned, not steered by anyone in particular. But the Amsterrdam sociologist, Allie Derecht demonstrated in her Ph.D., that in the 20th century a kind of civilizing offensive was organized, to force lower class people to adopt certain behavioral standards. For example, regarding the hygiene of their houses, the organization of their kitchens. But the civilising process also had an influence on the power balance, between men and women. And also, very important, on the power balance between older people, and younger people. For example, the balance between parents and their children, or between teachers and their pupils. Of course, it is very interesting subject for research. Even the long-term changes, in the way in which people in the West have been treating non-human animals. It's a topic that can be studied with the help of hypothesis, that are derived from elyesis theory, and finally there is the very dark subject of relationship between processes of civilization, or decivilization. And the occurrence of state violence, and even the persecution of minorities. Sometimes I meet people who say, that it's such a strange confidence that Elias was writing his magnum opus on civilization. When on the other side of the North Sea, the National Socialists in Germany, were planning the extermination of the Jews. But I have the feeling that there is no coincidence here, Elias writing in the second half of the 30s, as a refugee in London. Wanted to understand civilization, and the conditions under which it may break down. He studied the forces that produce civilizing processes, and implicitly also the forces that might lead to de-civilization. And in a way, I find his book not so very reassuring. How ever pacified we may have become, the pleasure in killing people is never far away. I think that Elias thought of what was going on in his home country, when he wrote the following sentence. >> And immerse social upheaval and urgency, heightened by carefully concerted propaganda, are needed to reawaken, and legitimize in large masses of the people >> The socially outlawed drives, the joy in killing, and destruction that have been repressed from everyday civilized life.
