Peasant 68282 224687287 2008-07-09T23:42:13Z Rushyo 368113 Reverted 4 edits by [[Special:Contributions/90.209.21.147|90.209.21.147]] identified as [[WP:VAND|vandalism]] to last revision by [[User:Eeekster|Eeekster]]. ([[WP:TW|TW]]) {{Refimprove|date=June 2007}} ''Not to be confused with [[pheasants]].'' [[Image:BrueghelLand of Cockaignedetail.jpg|thumb|In a detail of [[Pieter Brueghel the Elder|Brueghel's]] ''Land of Cockaigne'' (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the 16th century.]] A '''peasant''' is an [[agriculture|agricultural]] worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century [[French language|French]] ''païsant'' meaning one from the ''pays'', or [[rural|countryside]]. The term peasant today is sometimes used in a pejorative sense for impoverished [[farmer]]s. There were free and unfree peasants. Free peasants could leave the manor as they wished. Unfree peasants had to buy their way out of the manor by paying their lord. Peasants typically make up the majority of the [[agriculture|agricultural]] labour force in a [[Pre-industrial society]], depending on the [[cultivation]] of their land: without stockpiles of provisions they thrive or [[starvation|starve]] according to the most recent [[harvest]]. Pre-industrial societies have diminished with the advent of [[globalization]] and as such there are considerably fewer peasants to be found in [[rural]] areas throughout the world. Though "peasant" is a word of loose application, once a [[market economy]] has taken root the term '''''peasant proprietors''''' is frequently used to describe the traditional rural population in countries where the land is chiefly held by [[smallholder]]s. ==Communities== In the great majority of pre-industrial societies, peasants constitute the bulk of the population. Peasant societies generally have very well developed social support networks. Especially in harder [[climate]]s, members of the community who have a poor [[harvest]] or suffer some form of hardship will be taken care of by the rest of the community. Peasant societies can often have very [[stratified]] social hierarchies within them as well. A rural peasant population differs enormously in its values and economic behavior from urbanites and tends to be more [[social conservatism|conservative]]. Peasants are often very loyal to inherited power structures that define their rights and privileges and protect them from interlopers, despite their low status within those power structures. [[Fernand Braudel]] devoted the first volume&ndash;called ''The Structures of Everyday Life.''&ndash;of his major work, ''Civilization and Capitalism 15th&ndash;18th Century'' to the largely silent and invisible world that existed below the market economy. [[Image:Bruegel peasant wedding dsc01965.jpg|thumb|left|''[[The Peasant Wedding]]'', by [[Flemish]] painter [[Pieter Brueghel the Elder]], 1567 or 1568]] Since it was the literate classes who left the most records, and these tended to dismiss peasants as figures of coarse appetite and rustic comedy, the term "peasant" may have a pejorative rather than descriptive connotation in historical memory. Society was theorized as being organized in three “estates”: those who work, those who pray, and those who fight.<ref>[[Richard Southern]]: ''The Making of the Middle Ages'' (1952)</ref> In a [[barter economy]], peasants characteristically have a different attitude to work than people in a [[money]] economy would. ===Medieval European peasants=== [[Image:Vanetsov Moving House.jpg|thumb|Russian peasants in [[Viktor Vasnetsov]]'s "Moving House", 1876]] The relative position of [[Western Europe]]an peasants was greatly improved after the [[Black Death]] unsettled [[medieval Europe]], granting far greater economic and political power to those peasants fortunate enough to survive the cataclysm. In the wake of this disruption to the established hierarchy, later centuries saw the invention of the original [[printing presses]], widespread [[literacy]] and the enormous social and intellectual changes of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]. This evolution of ideas in an environment of relatively widespread [[literacy]] laid the groundwork for the [[Industrial Revolution]], which enabled mechanically and chemically augmented agricultural production while simultaneously increasing the demand for [[factory]] workers in [[city|cities]]. These factory workers with their low skill and large numbers quickly came to occupy the same socio-economic stratum as the original medieval peasants. This was especially pronounced in [[Eastern Europe]]. Lacking any [[catalysts]] for change in the 14th century, Eastern European peasants largely continued upon the original medieval path until the 18th and 19th centuries. The [[Tsar]]s then began to notice that the West had made enormous strides they had not, responding by forcing the largely [[illiterate]] peasant populations under their control to embark upon a [[Westernization]] and [[industrialization]] campaign. [[Peter the Great]] initiated a half-successful attempt to force more than 500 years' worth of social change in the space of a few generations. Modernization of agriculture in Eastern Europe and Russia was not achieved until after the [[October Revolution]]. ==See also== [[Image:Adriaen van Ostade - Peasants in a Tavern.jpg|thumb|"Peasants in a Tavern" by [[Adriaen van Ostade]] (c. 1635), at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich]] *[[Feudalism]] *[[Petty nobility]] *[[Folk culture]] *[[Lower class]] *[[Peasant revolt]] *[[Popular revolt in late medieval Europe]] *[[Slavery]] *[[Anti-Rent War]] ===Other terms for peasant=== *[[Aloer]] *[[Campesino]] *[[Churl]] *[[Cotter (farmer)|Cotter]] *[[Fellah]] *[[Free tenant]] *[[Hari (Sindh)|Hari]] *[[Honbyakushō]] *[[Kulak]] *[[Muzhik]] *[[Remença|Pagesos de remença]] *[[Peon]] *[[Proletariat|Proletarian]] *[[Serfdom|Serf]] *[[Serfdom#Villeins|Villein]] *[[Smerd]] ==Notes and references== <references/> {{Socialclass}} [[Category:Early Middle Ages]] [[Category:High Middle Ages]] [[Category:Farming history]] [[Category:Feudalism]] [[Category:Industrial Revolution]] [[Category:Social history]] [[de:Landarbeiter]] [[fr:paysan]] [[nl:Boer]] [[pl:chłopi]] [[pt:Camponês]] [[ro:Ţăran]] [[ru:Крестьянин]] [[zh:农民]]