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Norbert Elias, George Herbert Mead, and the Promise of Embodied Sociology Dmitri N. Shalin 1 Accepted: 2 October 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract This paper examines the continuity between the research programs of Norbert Elias and George Herbert Mead. It shows that the two authors left us with the outlines of a sociological theory that is dialectical, process oriented, alert to the interplay of affect, reason, and society, and dedicated to an empirical inquiry into the embodied nature of socio-psychological realty. After reviewing the areas where the two researchers converge and follow separate routs, I discuss recent developments in social neuroscience and behavioral epigenetics that support the program of embodied sociology articulated by Norbert Elias and George Herbert Mead. Keywords Elias . Mead . Embodied sociology . Social neuroscience . Behavioral

epigenetics

Introduction It is conceivable that Norbert Elias had come across Mead’s name when he read Parsons, Goffman or Habermas, but there are no direct references to Mead in the Elias’s corpus, nor is there any evidence that Elias was influenced by Mead. Authors like Richard Kilminster (1991: xvii) maintain that the evolutionary perspective on language acquisition “makes Elias’s efforts unique among contemporary sociological approaches to symbol formation.” This statement is a clear indication that the remarkable parallels between these two sociologists have escaped Elias as well as students of his work. To rectify the situation, I explore the selective affinity between these sociological classics, with special attention to embodiment as a key sociological *An original version of this paper was presented at the 2001 Meeting of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (Anaheim, August 20). It has been revised to highlight how the program of embodied sociology articulated by Norbert Elias and George Herbert Mead has been advanced in recent years.

* Dmitri N. Shalin [email protected]

1

UNLV Center for Democratic Culture, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA

The American Sociologist

problem which, until recently, has been relegated to the periphery of sociological theory and research. I begin with a few biographical points and stylistic features illuminating the two sociologists, then single out the theoretical issues on which their views converge and conclude with the emergent research program that can benefit from the ideas championed by Elias and Mead. My emphasis on the convergence of these two authors does not imply that they saw eye-to-eye on key points, as I highlight how the two thinkers differ in their respective research agendas. My chief concern is with the continuity of programs articulated by Elias and Mead and the prospects for combining their insights in a project of embodied sociology that incorporates recent findings of social neuroscience, behavioral epigenetics, and cultural biology.

Biographical Context and Intellectual Sources Mead was born in 1863 and d