The Civilizing Process and the Domestication of Fire*

I the two volumes of The Civilizing Process (first published in German in 1939, and in English in 1982) Norbert Elias studied changes in manners, society, and personality in western Europe over the period roughly from 850 to 1850. The documentary evidence upon which he based his argument was mainly derived from the second half of this period, from 1350 to 1850. The purpose of the study was to arrive at a better understanding of the contemporary world, and of its social and psychological problems.1 Now, by any conventional standards the period from 1350 to 1850, not to speak of the millennium from 850 to 1850, is a very long time. Yet, when we take into account the full history of human civilization, it is short: an episode, no more. Consequently, since Elias’s focus was upon the changes that have taken place in western Europe since 1350, certain underlying patterns in human history had to remain in the background. Elias himself was aware of this, and in later writings he