The civilizing process and colonization in Norbert Elias: a Interpretative Theory through Sociology, History and Psychology

Abstract

The eliasian theory of civilizing process, which upholds that the structure of the civilized behavior is narrowly interrelated to the organization of occidental societies under the form of States, presents an original approach the study on the society and the human relation through a point-of-view that gathers the perspective of psychology, sociology and history. Nevertheless, there is an association between the civilizing process and the European colonization processes aforementioned by Elias in his intellectual course that normally attains little or sometimes none attention from those who study the subject. This article offers an exegesis that describes the main guidelines through which Norbert Elias build up his thought: the outlines of his sociology, the concept of civilization, the relation between psychic structure and State formation, and the diffusion of European civilizing process through colonization. The purpose is to deal with the construction of an interpretative model of social interaction that has potential to open new perspectives of historiographic approach for those who lean over on the colonial contexts generated by the European expansionism.