The History of Table Manners

In my previous post, I wrote about the history of cheese. On could apply the same kind of analysis to anything. One that is particularly interesting is the history of table manners. The great German historian Norbert Elias wrote a book on this called The history of table manners (The Civilizing Process Vol.1). At the beginning, this book was misunderstood as being "social Darwinism", the idea of upward "progress" was dismissed by reading it as consecutive history rather than a metaphor for a social process. However, soon people came to understanding him. He describes the increasing structuring and restraining of human behaviour in European history, a process called "civilization" by its own protagonists. Elias  intended to analyse this concept and process dubbed civilization, and researched into its origins, patterns, and methods.

The Guardian also published an interesting article about the history of table manners: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/nov/09/history-table-manners-etiquette-beeton