[1] It is frequently used by members of elite to indicate their dominant position through appearance, speech, dress, choice of food, and rituals of socializing,[2] so called class markers.
[3] The markers delimit the boundaries between the social groups, connecting a person to "in-group" people like them and at the same time separating from the "out-group" ones (unlike others).
[8] Timothy Reuter points to the crucial importance of the dress as a marker in the Middle Ages: aristocrats "were willing to risk [...] immortal souls for the sake of a sable coat" (Adam of Bremen, 11th century) while limiting the availability of expensive materials (furs, bright-colored fabric) to the rest of the population (cf.
[8] In the medieval Europe nobles were easy to recognize by their appearance alone: they ate more (and better) food and were physically larger (the modern humans are much taller than medieval commoners, but about the same height as the nobles of the same times), and the sick members of nobility were mostly hidden from view (in monasteries, giving an appearance of lack of physical and mental problems among them.
[10] The food represents a demarcation line for the elites (caviar, champagne, goat cheese), this class marker was commented upon since the Classical Antiquity (cf.