The ‘Civilizing Process’ in Ghana

Abstract

Norbert Elias went to Ghana as Professor of Sociology for two years. Nevertheless he continued to refer to its inhabitants, despite their rural development, as naturvolk which the civilising process had not touched. That process apparently took off in Europe at the time of the Renaissance and never reached the Third World. The Ghanaians had different kinds of super-ego which did not restrain their behaviour in the same way as Europeans. The lack of restraint is shown in blood sacrifice and in their art, which gives a more direct expression of feeling. Elias' observations were necessarily superficial as he did not carry out fieldwork or learn any languages. He employed them simply to bolster the themes he had developed in a European context rather than using them to modify those themes.