
Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder'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:_the_16th_century_was_a_good_time_for_European_peasants">Image:BrueghelLand of Cockaignedetail.jpg|thumb|right|280px|In a detail of Pieter Brueghel the Elder'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: the 16th century was a good time for European peasants A peasant, from 15th century French ''païsant'' meaning one from the ''pays,'' the countryside or region, (from Latin ''pagus'', country district) is an agricultural worker with roots in the countryside in which he dwells, either working for others or, more specifically, owning or renting and working by his own labour a small plot of ground, in England a "cottager". Peasants exist in a world before the modern division of labor: a peasant must be a jack-of-all trades, handy at everything. Peasants depend on the cultivation of their land; without stockpiles of provision they thrive or starve according to the most recent harvest (''illustration, above right''). Peasants live to agricultural time; the "world-time", in Fernand Braudel's term, of politics and economics does not directly affect the peasant. Peasants typically make up the majority of the agriculture labour force in a pre-industrial society. Though a word of not very strict application, once a market economy has taken universal root, it is now frequently used of the traditionalist rural population in countries where the land is chiefly held by smallholders, ''peasant proprietors''. In the great majority of pre-industrial societies, peasants constitute the bulk of the population, the authentic "silent majority". A rural peasant population differs enormously in its values and economic behavior from an urban worker population. Peasants tend to be more conservative than urbanites, and are often very loyal to inherited power structures that define their rights and privileges and protect them from interlopers, despite their generally low status within them. Peasant societies generally have very well developed social support networks. Especially in harder climates, 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. Loyalties and vengeance both run very deep. Peasant communities are extremely tight, and are often difficult to access or understand by outsiders. Peasant societies can often have very stratified social hierarchies within them. In a barter economy, peasants characteristically have a different attitude to work than peasants— or towndwellers— in a money economy would. Most of them are content to live at a subsistence level and will not expend unnecessary labour raising their standard of living. Traditionally many non-peasants have viewed this as laziness. However, it does make sense from their perspective, since there would rarely be any point in producing more than could be consumed. Fernand Braudel devoted the first volume of his major work, ''Civilization and Capitalism 15th–18th Century'' to the largely silent and invisible world that existed below the market economy, in ''The Structures of Everyday Life.'' [[Image:Costume of a Vilain or Peasant Fifteenth Century from a Miniature of La Danse Macabre Manuscript 7310 of the National Library of Paris.png|thumb|left|Costume of a Vilain or Peasant, Fifteenth Century, from a 15th-century miniature of the "Danse Macabre," Bibliothèque National, Paris, Ms 7310]] Since the literate classes who left the most record tended to dismiss the peasants as figures of coarse appetite and rustic comedy, "peasant" may have a pejorative rather than descriptive connotation in historical memory. However, it was not always that way; peasants were once viewed as pious and seen with respect and pride. Life was hard for peasants, but before technology and a money economy created a chasm between rich and poor, life was hard for everyone. Society was theorized as organized in three "estates": those who work, those who pray and those who fight. Those who theorized did so for those whose recent ancestors did little but fight, ecclesiastics and nobles who increasingly lived more private lives. A new consciousness of inalienable rights and new, unjust impositions from above contributed to the Popular revolt in late medieval Europe, the breakdown of the feudal system and the rise of modernity. Once a money economy had intruded on the old agricultural order, the peasant was slowly transformed into the laborer for wages, or he might hold a precarious position as an independent smallholder, one of the "yeomen" of sentimental history. In some countries in central and eastern Europe where a barter economy obtained in self-sufficient societies, reintroduced serfdom continued up to the 19th century in places, and in some third world countries the term is still broadly applicable today. ==Peasant Sayings== *"Arbeit macht frei" German peasant saying ==Related Topics== *Farmer *Feudalism *Peon *Popular revolt in late medieval Europe *Proletarian *Serf *Slave *Kulak *Peasant revolt *Yeoman ==References== *Braudel, Fernand, ''The Structures of Everyday Life'' vol I of ''Civilization and Capitalism'' *Ladurie, Emmanuel Le Roy, ''Montaillou : The Promised Land of Error'' *Mollat, Michael, ''The Poor in the Middle Ages'', 1986. ---- Feudalism
:''That "peasant" is sometimes used as an insult by those townsfolk who consider themselves superior to rural labourers should not affect the sturdy usefulness of an old term.'' What's interesting and notable is not only that certain people use it pejorativly, but how did it get to be that way, what were the forces and events that made peasant a "dirty" word (it wasnt always), then we can re-examine modern uses of the word in a new light. --User:Stbalbach 17:38, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC) :Could you include this in the article somehow? It would be a great addition to the article. Overall this article needs much work, as it is still somehow "raw" and uncomplete. Thanks! User:Peregrine981 12:20, Feb 3, 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Peasant:
Peasant
Peasant
Peasantry
Peasants
Peasants'_and_Workers'_Party_of_India
Peasants'_Battalions
Peasants'_Christian_Democratic_Party_of_Moldova
Peasants'_Crusade
Peasants'_Revolt
Peasants'_Revolt
Peasants'_War
Peasants,_Pigs,_and_Astronauts
Peasants_and_New_Democratic_Party_Union
Peasants_and_Workers_Party_of_India
Peasants_Crusade
Peasants_Revolt
Peasants_War
Peasant_food
Peasant_foods
Peasant_foods
Peasant_foods
Peasant_Land_Bank
Peasant_multiplication
Peasant_multiplication
Peasant_Party
Peasant_Party
Peasant_Party_(Serbia)
Peasant_Party_(Taiwan)
Peasant_Party_(Taiwan)
Peasant_rebellion
Peasant_revolt
Peasant_revolt
Peasant_revolts
Peasant_revolts_(Europe)
Peasant_revolts_(Europe)
Peasant_revolt_in_Flanders
Peasant_revolt_in_Flanders_1323-1328
Peasant_Student_Workers_Movement
Peasant_War
Peasant’s_Revolt
Peasant
Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder'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:_the_16th_century_was_a_good_time_for_European_peasants">Image:BrueghelLand of Cockaignedetail.jpg|thumb|right|280px|In a detail of Pieter Brueghel the Elder'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: the 16th century was a good time for European peasants A peasant, from 15th century French ''païsant'' meaning one from the ''pays,'' the countryside or region, (from Latin ''pagus'', country district) is an agricultural worker with roots in the countryside in which he dwells, either working for others or, more specifically, owning or renting and working by his own labour a small plot of ground, in England a "cottager". Peasants exist in a world before the modern division of labor: a peasant must be a jack-of-all trades, handy at everything. Peasants depend on the cultivation of their land; without stockpiles of provision they thrive or starve according to the most recent harvest (''illustration, above right''). Peasants live to agricultural time; the "world-time", in Fernand Braudel's term, of politics and economics does not directly affect the peasant. Peasants typically make up the majority of the agriculture labour force in a pre-industrial society. Though a word of not very strict application, once a market economy has taken universal root, it is now frequently used of the traditionalist rural population in countries where the land is chiefly held by smallholders, ''peasant proprietors''. In the great majority of pre-industrial societies, peasants constitute the bulk of the population, the authentic "silent majority". A rural peasant population differs enormously in its values and economic behavior from an urban worker population. Peasants tend to be more conservative than urbanites, and are often very loyal to inherited power structures that define their rights and privileges and protect them from interlopers, despite their generally low status within them. Peasant societies generally have very well developed social support networks. Especially in harder climates, 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. Loyalties and vengeance both run very deep. Peasant communities are extremely tight, and are often difficult to access or understand by outsiders. Peasant societies can often have very stratified social hierarchies within them. In a barter economy, peasants characteristically have a different attitude to work than peasants— or towndwellers— in a money economy would. Most of them are content to live at a subsistence level and will not expend unnecessary labour raising their standard of living. Traditionally many non-peasants have viewed this as laziness. However, it does make sense from their perspective, since there would rarely be any point in producing more than could be consumed. Fernand Braudel devoted the first volume of his major work, ''Civilization and Capitalism 15th–18th Century'' to the largely silent and invisible world that existed below the market economy, in ''The Structures of Everyday Life.'' [[Image:Costume of a Vilain or Peasant Fifteenth Century from a Miniature of La Danse Macabre Manuscript 7310 of the National Library of Paris.png|thumb|left|Costume of a Vilain or Peasant, Fifteenth Century, from a 15th-century miniature of the "Danse Macabre," Bibliothèque National, Paris, Ms 7310]] Since the literate classes who left the most record tended to dismiss the peasants as figures of coarse appetite and rustic comedy, "peasant" may have a pejorative rather than descriptive connotation in historical memory. However, it was not always that way; peasants were once viewed as pious and seen with respect and pride. Life was hard for peasants, but before technology and a money economy created a chasm between rich and poor, life was hard for everyone. Society was theorized as organized in three "estates": those who work, those who pray and those who fight. Those who theorized did so for those whose recent ancestors did little but fight, ecclesiastics and nobles who increasingly lived more private lives. A new consciousness of inalienable rights and new, unjust impositions from above contributed to the Popular revolt in late medieval Europe, the breakdown of the feudal system and the rise of modernity. Once a money economy had intruded on the old agricultural order, the peasant was slowly transformed into the laborer for wages, or he might hold a precarious position as an independent smallholder, one of the "yeomen" of sentimental history. In some countries in central and eastern Europe where a barter economy obtained in self-sufficient societies, reintroduced serfdom continued up to the 19th century in places, and in some third world countries the term is still broadly applicable today. ==Peasant Sayings== *"Arbeit macht frei" German peasant saying ==Related Topics== *Farmer *Feudalism *Peon *Popular revolt in late medieval Europe *Proletarian *Serf *Slave *Kulak *Peasant revolt *Yeoman ==References== *Braudel, Fernand, ''The Structures of Everyday Life'' vol I of ''Civilization and Capitalism'' *Ladurie, Emmanuel Le Roy, ''Montaillou : The Promised Land of Error'' *Mollat, Michael, ''The Poor in the Middle Ages'', 1986. ---- Feudalism
Peasant
:''That "peasant" is sometimes used as an insult by those townsfolk who consider themselves superior to rural labourers should not affect the sturdy usefulness of an old term.'' What's interesting and notable is not only that certain people use it pejorativly, but how did it get to be that way, what were the forces and events that made peasant a "dirty" word (it wasnt always), then we can re-examine modern uses of the word in a new light. --User:Stbalbach 17:38, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC) :Could you include this in the article somehow? It would be a great addition to the article. Overall this article needs much work, as it is still somehow "raw" and uncomplete. Thanks! User:Peregrine981 12:20, Feb 3, 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
P
PA | PB | PC | PD | PE | PF | PG | PH | PI | PJ | PK | PL | PM | PN | PO | PR | PS | PT | PU | PW | PX | PY | PZ |Words begining with Peasant:
Peasant
Peasant
Peasantry
Peasants
Peasants'_and_Workers'_Party_of_India
Peasants'_Battalions
Peasants'_Christian_Democratic_Party_of_Moldova
Peasants'_Crusade
Peasants'_Revolt
Peasants'_Revolt
Peasants'_War
Peasants,_Pigs,_and_Astronauts
Peasants_and_New_Democratic_Party_Union
Peasants_and_Workers_Party_of_India
Peasants_Crusade
Peasants_Revolt
Peasants_War
Peasant_food
Peasant_foods
Peasant_foods
Peasant_foods
Peasant_Land_Bank
Peasant_multiplication
Peasant_multiplication
Peasant_Party
Peasant_Party
Peasant_Party_(Serbia)
Peasant_Party_(Taiwan)
Peasant_Party_(Taiwan)
Peasant_rebellion
Peasant_revolt
Peasant_revolt
Peasant_revolts
Peasant_revolts_(Europe)
Peasant_revolts_(Europe)
Peasant_revolt_in_Flanders
Peasant_revolt_in_Flanders_1323-1328
Peasant_Student_Workers_Movement
Peasant_War
Peasant’s_Revolt
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