Peasant

• 1. Etymology And Definition

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  A 1909 photograph by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky shows young women offering berries to visitors at their izba home. Those who had been serfs among the Russian peasantry were officially emancipated in 1861. The word peasant derives from the 15th-century French word pays, meaning one from the countryside or outlying administrative district. This term ultimately traces back to the Latin pagus, which described a rural district. In medieval Europe, three classes of peasants existed: non-free slaves, semi-free serfs, and free tenants. Peasants might hold title to land outright or through forms like socage, quit-rent, leasehold, and copyhold. As early as 13th-century Germany, the concept implied rustic behavior as well as robbery. By the 21st century, English usage often meant an ignorant or unsophisticated person. The word rose to renewed popularity between the 1940s and 1960s as a collective term for rural populations in developing countries. It functioned as the semantic successor to native while incorporating condescending racial overtones. Via Campesina claims to represent about 200 million farm-workers globally under its International Peasant's Movement label. The United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas in 2018. General English-language literature shows steady decline in using peasant since approximately 1970.

• 2. Medieval European Society

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  The open field system dominated most of Europe during medieval times until the nineteenth century in many areas. Under this system, peasants lived on a manor presided over by a lord or bishop of the church. They paid rent or labor services to the lord in exchange for cultivating rights. Fallowed land, pastures, forests, and wasteland were held in common across the community. The open field system required cooperation among all peasants of the manor. This arrangement gradually gave way to individual ownership and management of land. Relative positions improved greatly after the Black Death reduced medieval Europe's population in the mid-14th century. Survivors gained more land while labor became scarce throughout the region. Laborers demanded wages and alternative compensation forms following this disruption to established order. These changes ultimately led to widespread literacy development and enormous social intellectual shifts of the Enlightenment. Evolutionary ideas in an environment of relatively widespread literacy laid groundwork for the Industrial Revolution. Mechanically and chemically augmented agricultural production increased demand for factory workers in cities. Karl Marx called these urban workers the proletariat. Enclosure typified England's trend toward individual land ownership that displaced many peasants from their farms. Displaced peasants often became unwilling urban factory-workers occupying socio-economic strata formerly reserved for medieval peasants.

• 3. Eastern European Serfdom

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  This process happened in an especially pronounced and truncated way in Eastern Europe. Lacking catalysts for change in the 14th century, Eastern European peasants continued upon original medieval paths until the 18th and 19th centuries. Serfdom was abolished in Russia in 1861 despite ongoing decline before emancipation occurred. The proportion of serfs within the empire had gradually decreased from 45, 50 percent at end of eighteenth century to 37.7 percent in 1858. Many peasants remained in areas where family had farmed generations after emancipation. Changes allowed buying and selling lands traditionally held by peasants while enabling landless ex-peasants to move to cities. In Germany, peasants continued centering lives in village well into 19th century. They belonged to corporate bodies helping manage community resources and monitor community life. In eastern regions they held status as serfs bound permanently to parcels of land. A peasant is called Bauer in German or Bur in Low German pronunciation like boor. Most farming handled by tenant farmers paying rents and obligatory services to landlords typically nobleman. Monasteries of Bavaria controlled 56% of land before government broke them up around 1803. Peasant leaders supervised fields ditches grazing rights maintaining public order and morals supporting village courts handling minor offenses.

• 4. Global Terminology Shifts

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  Farmers in China have been sometimes referred to as peasants in English-language sources. Traditional term nongfu simply refers to farmer or agricultural worker without class distinction. In 19th century Japanese intellectuals reinvented Chinese terms fengjian for feudalism and nongmin for farming people. These terms created negative image of Chinese farmers by making class distinctions previously nonexistent. Anthropologist Myron Cohen considers these terms neologisms representing cultural and political invention. Writers in English mostly used farm until 1920s when peasant came to predominate implying China was feudal ready for revolution. Western use suggests China stagnant medieval underdeveloped held back by rural population. Imposition of historically burdened Western contrasts distorts realities of Chinese economic tradition. In Latin America term translates to Campesino from campo meaning country person but meaning changed over time. Most Campesinos before 20th century equivalent status to peasants not owning land paying payments to landlord hacienda system. One or more extensive land reforms redistributed lands from large landholders to former peasants-farm workers tenant farmers. Many Campesinos today closer smallholders owning land not paying rent to landlords than traditional peasants. Catholic Bishops of Paraguay asserted every campesino has natural right possess reasonable allotment establishing home working family subsistence secure life.

• 5. Historiography And Theory

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  Medieval Europe society theorized organized into three estates: those who work, pray, fight. Annales School of 20th-century French historians emphasized importance of peasants. Leader Fernand Braudel devoted first volume called Structures of Everyday Life major work Civilization and Capitalism 15th, 18th Century largely silent invisible world below market economy. Other research promoted by Florian Znaniecki and Fei Xiaotong plus post-1945 studies great tradition little tradition Robert Redfield. Anthropologists and historians began rethinking role peasant revolt in world history disciplines during 1960s. Peasant revolution seen Third World response capitalism imperialism. Anthropologist Eric Wolf drew earlier Marxist scholars Daniel Thorner seeing rural population key transition feudalism capitalism. Wolf group criticized Marx Modernization theorists treating peasants lacking ability take action. James C Scott field observations Malaysia convinced villagers active participants local politics forced indirect methods. Activist scholars looked back peasant movement India theories revolution China led Mao Zedong starting 1920s. Anthropologist Myron Cohen asked why rural population China called peasants rather farmers distinction political scientific. Important outlet scholarly work theory Journal of Peasant Studies published regular articles examining these dynamics.