The reflexive anthropology of the process of civilization

Drawing upon the theory of reflexive anthropology the article offers a new perspective on Elias' theory of the process of civilization. The basic assu mption of reflexive anthropology is that the range of social actors cannot be restricted to living human beings but may include other entities as well . Among other things, this approach allows to understand the emergence and further development of the criminal prosecution and the capital punishment of animals. The prosecution of animals was a wide-spread phenomenon in Euro pe from the end of the 13th century until the late 17th century. During tha t period, animals were treated as persons or subjects with a free will, who were responsible for their deeds. In early medieval society, however, the notion of individual guilt and responsibility had not existed in secular co ntexts. The prerequisite for the development of the notion of individual gu ilt was a change in legal practices, which took place in the 12th century. At that time trials were rationalized (Max Weber), i.e., judges referred to a body of written law which was regarded as man-made and alterable, and tr ials were held with the aim of finding out what had actually happened and w ho was responsible, That process of rationalization was the precondition fo r the inclusion of animals into legal procedures. The article examines in d epth the conditions which allowed animals to become responsible subjects of criminal law for almost 400 years. Furthermore. it depicts the emergence o f the strict separation between the realms of nature, culture, and the supe rnatural, which was first conceived in the 17th and 18th centuries and whic h constitutes a central feature of the civilised world we live in today.