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Delve into our Timeline of Bad Habits to discover how habits have shifted over time. Then join the debate on OpenLearn.

Habits reveal a lot about society and how it´s ordered. In his classic work The Civilizing Process, Norbert Elias traced connections between the formation of the modern state and a long process of civilisation over 500 years of Western European history.

This process involved the taming of some of our ancestors´ more colourful habits to allow people separated by custom and territory to enter into relationships with one another without the danger of causing grievous insult.

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