Rural History

The paper aims to present the first results of an in-depth and source-based research about socio-economic inequalities and agricultural growth in the Late Medieval Florentine society.
This area has been intensively studied because of its economic relevance and the rise of a peculiar share-cropping system (mezzadria). Mezzadria lease contracts spread broadly in Tuscany at the end of the Middle Ages (13th c.), linked to the building of the regional city-state by the city-commune of Florence and its raising economy. The system developed before the demographic shocks of Late Middle Ages and continued to develop further during the decline of the Florentine economy in 15th-16th centuries. The role of mezzadria in shaping declining economic trends and socio-economic inequalities, as well as the causes of its rise, are still debated among scholars.
This research would offer an original contribute on these issues through a new in-depth consultation of the Florentine fiscal surveys of the 15th and 16th centuries (the Catasto of 1427 and the Decima repubblicana of the early 16th century) and the use of a social agro-systemic approach. The information entered from sources will be used to draw a picture of the social and property structure of four different sub-regional study-areas within the Florentine territory (characterized by differences in the importance of institutions, in property distribution, in environmental features), comparing the trends and their causal relations for regional differences. The goal is drawing: 1) a more complete figure of agricultural output of mezzadria –  comparing different systems of exploitation and subregions –; 2) an in-depth figure of socio-economic inequalities – property and income distribution, ownership of oxen, access to credit and fiscal incomes. In this way it will be possible to offer a more detailed pattern of explanation of the main dynamics of Late Medieval rural Tuscany.

This paper studies through a quantitative analysis at micro-scale (the pieve of San Giovanni in Petroio in Mugello) in 1427-1512 the relation between the growing economic inequality of the Florentine rural society found by recent research and a peculiar share-cropping system, the mezzadria. By focusing on the mechanisms of wealth redistribution of this system, the paper suggests the role of mezzadria whether in increasing in the long-run the concentration of land property and in providing for the poorest social layers of rural population at subsistence level. In this regard, the paper contributes to explore the role of institutions in increasing wealth concentration from Middle Ages to the Early Modern times.

A BYU course paper where I examine how some more isolated areas of the would-be Confederacy fared better than the South as a whole during the economic plummet that devastated the region in the aftermath of the Civil War and years of Reconstruction.

This paper is an examination of the account book of Middlesex County, Ontario weaver, John Campbell, dating 1859 to 1885.  I describe the provenance and physical format of the account book and I provide context by discussing the weaver, John Campbell.  I consider themes such as the production and consumption of cloth and speculate about how the account book can be used as a historical source.

Türkiye, her iki dünya savaşı ertesi köklü dönüşümler geçirdi. İlki 600 yıllık Osmanlı hanedanına son verdi. İkincisi ise Tek Parti döneminin sonu oldu; Türkiye’de siyasi demokrasinin yolunu açtı. İkinci Dünya Savaşı’nda Türkiye tarafsız kaldı. Ancak, savaşın tüm olumsuzluklarını bilfiil yaşadı. Tek Parti döneminin toplumsal dengeleri büyük ölçüde hasar gördü. Milli Korunma Kanunu, Varlık Vergisi, Toprak Mahsulleri
Vergisi, İş Mükellefiyeti gibi uygulamalar toplumsal katmanları iktidara karşı tavır almaya sevk etti. Devletin savaş içinde kararlarını hayata geçirme konusundaki zaafları belirginleşirken; kitlelerin gündelik yaşamda tepki ve direnişleri de çığ gibi arttı. Gerek çok partili sisteme geçişte, gerekse 1940’ların ikinci yarısında gündeme gelen sosyal politika alanındaki reformlarda toplum tabanında gözlenen yılgınlık ve
tepkiler önemli bir rol oynadı.
Murat Metinsoy’un kitabı işte bu zor yılların toplumsal öyküsünü gündeme getiriyor. Olaylar dizinini tabandan irdeleyerek; kitlelerin yaşam deneyimlerini, serzenişlerini, gündelik yaşamdaki direnişlerini vurgulayarak… Otoriter dönemlerde bile toplumun
gündelik mücadelelerinin ve taleplerinin siyasete etki edebileceğini
ortaya koyarak…
Zafer Toprak, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi

The study considers the economics of the oil palm (Elaeis guinensis) to rural farmers in a rural community in south-eastern Nigeria. It compares the economic benefits of all products of the oil palm industry – palm oil, palm kernel, timber, palm wine and brooms. It posits that the most important product of the oil palm to the Enugu Ezike farmer is oil palm wine. This contrasts with the view that holds palm oil and palm kernel as the chief products of the oil palm. In a study conducted in Enugu Ezike, findings reveal that annual revenue from palm wine surpasses the six-yearly income from palm oil, palm kernel and brooms together. The study employs an eclectic framework of data collection, involving oral interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation, and the use of secondary sources. The oil palm is by every standard the most economically important tree crop and proceeds from it have positively influenced the socio-economic life of the rural communities, and as a result...

Rural banditry in Algeria is a social phenomenon that media largely publicized in the 1890’s. Some bandits even rose to prominence such as Arezky El Bachîr, native from Yakouren a village in Kabylie. The purpose of this article is to develop the role of dispossession experienced by Algerian peasantry considered as a motor in the birth of banditry. There are two different aspects in this dispossession. First, lands cultivated by Algerian peasantry suffered the creation of centers of colonization. Furthermore, common rights have been brutally reduced by the colonial authority especially concerning the use of forest resources. This dispossession is the background on which banditry burst. Interpreted as a phenomenon of resistance against colonization, it is violently repressed by the colonial authority.

Review concerns the joint publication of authors led by Dominik Nowakowski from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Wroclaw. It should be seen as the final result of queries and research as well as of the field verification, devoted to the medieval rural settlements within the limits of today’s Lubin County (northern part of Lower Silesia). The project involved historians, archaeologists, geographers (specializing themselves in anthropogenic changes of landscape and in historical cartography). The reviewed book, published as the interdisciplinary compendium, delivers all the most important data for further studies. Due to the fact that it is the first volume of the Dictionary of Silesian villages in the Middle Ages, the authors had also to challenge to establish the adequate methodology, that could be followed in subsequent parts of the Dictionary. In my opinion they succeeded in this field as well.

The aim of this joint paper is to analyse the often conflicting archaeological, historical and literary evidence relating to the moated site at Cloonfree in Co. Roscommon in order to create a picture of how the site appeared during the time it was in use during the early 14th century. Questions both for future work at the site and for later medieval Ireland in general will also be formulated in the text.

espanolSe analiza al sistema constructivo de la quincha en el norte de la provincia de Mendoza (Argentina) para luego reparar en la arquitectura vernacula como patrimonio, considerandola como parte del acervo historico de la cultura y en relacion con la identidad local. Para ello, se hace foco en dos zonas rurales del norte de la provincia en el contexto de tierras secas, para indagar respecto a sus posibles matices o variaciones y de esta forma aportar a la comprension del patrimonio vernaculo construido con tierra. La metodologia que se utiliza responde principalmente al uso de tecnicas cualitativas, las cuales involucran observacion directa y entrevistas en profundidad a los habitantes locales. Los resultados muestran que la quincha presenta variaciones dependiendo del contexto natural y cultural en que se genera. Las conclusiones senalan la importancia de reconocer las diferencias que presenta el sistema constructivo en cada zona, aportando datos que permitan gestionar su puesta...

From the immediate post-independence period to the Great Depression, Colombia went from having a mining-based export sector to being a mono-exporting coffee country. In the meantime, several relatively short export cycles were based on agricultural and forestry products. Although the different export cycles occurred in specific regions that combined different agricultural structures, socio-economic stratifications, and production systems, none of them survived the fall in prices resulting from growing globalization pressures, except in those cases were production could be adapted to forms of production based on peasant workforce. Based on this idea, Ocampo and Colmenares analyze the evolution of exports for a century, and its contribution to industrialization and economic modernization.

El presente trabajo acomete la tarea de investigar las construcciones vernaculas del municipio de Vega de San Mateo, en la comarca de las Medianias (Gran Canaria). Un conjunto de ejemplos de la arquitectura y la ingenieria historica, que conformaba sin duda el pasisaje tradicional de su municipio, y de los que aun se cuenta con un numero importante de testimonios.

Is inclusiveness in the commons and sustainability a paradox? Late medieval and Early Modern rural societies encountered ever growing challenges because of growing population pressure, urbanisation and commercialisation. While some regions went along this path and commercialised and intensified production, others sailed a different course, maintaining communal property and managing resources via common pool resource institutions. To prevent overexploitation and free riding, it was generally believed that strong formalised institutions, strict access regimes and restricted use rights were essential.
By looking at the late medieval Campine area, a sandy, infertile and fragile region, dominated by communal property and located at the core of the densely populated and commercialised Low Countries, it has become clear that sustainability, economic success and inclusiveness can be compatible. Because of a balanced distribution of power between smallholders and elites, strong property claims, a predominance of long-term agricultural strategies and the vitality of informal institutions and conflict resolution mechanisms, the Campine peasant communities were able to avert ecological distress while maintaining a positive economic climate.

O tema deste trabalho é o movimento de luta pela terra por pequenos lavradores do Sertão Carioca durante os anos de 1945 a 1964. Observaremos, entre outras coisas, como esses agentes fizeram com que suas reivindicações, denúncias e iniciativas de protesto chegassem à imprensa e ao campo político carioca daquela época. Foto de Capa: Trabalhadores do Sertão Carioca. Fundo: Última Hora. Arquivo Público do estado de São Paulo.

Au XVIIIe siècle, les réussites sociales propres à l'élite des fermiers supposaient un enrichissement sans précédent. De fait, en dépit d'une hiérarchie interne qui accuse les inégalités économiques, l'heure est à la prospérité en Ile-de-France, avant même que les mercuriales ne viennent accélérer les profits agricoles. Car les revenus se diversifient, et on est loin du modèle du pur fermier. L'accroissement des fortunes transforme les modes de vie et de représentation, érigeant le groupe des grands fermiers en intermédiaires culturels entre les classes dirigeantes de la capitale et les ruraux du plat pays. Des intermédiaires à l'affût des dernières modes et de plus en plus ouverts aux Lumières.

Genealogy and historical demography? Theoretical and practical possibilities of research into the network of social relations, as exemplified by a village in South Bohemia

The paper is divided into two parts. The first part summarises previous research based on the interconnection of methods of genealogy and historical demography in the Czech Republic and abroad, mainly in North America. Subsequently it offers an overview of basic trends and possibilities of how to use genealogy with demographic analyses. The second part of the article is focused on a reconstruction of the network of relations in a small South Bohemian village of Vítkov by Štěkeň near Strakonice at the turn of the 18th and 19thcenturies, which was based on registers of births and deaths, registers of subjects, and land records. The attempt to identify the network of social relations was done through the analysis of blood relations and godparental relations and wedding witnesses in individual families who were bound to the land by the ownership of one of fifteen homesteads. Nevertheless, attention was also paid to the lowermost classes of rural society.

That author of this study draws attention to a case of resistance against the communist regime, which occurred in a Czech rural district almost 60 years ago. The work deals with peasants’ protest rally in front of the District National Committee building in Dobruška. In December 1949, local private farmers decided to respond to official inspections of their homesteads (which forced them to deliver disproportionately large amounts of produce within the framework of the Czechoslovak Communist Party’s agricultural policies) by organising a protest march to the District National Committee. A Czechoslovak national flag was raised at the head of the procession and around 300 people took part in the event. The state security authorities responded with the mass detention of selected farmers, whom it then portrayed as a group of subversives. This resulted in the political trial of 18 farmers, whom communist propaganda disparagingly described as the “village rich” or “kulaks.” The case was heard before the Prague State Court in Hradec Kralove. Prison sentences ranging from 13 to 25 years were given to six people who were identified as organisers, while sentences of 1 to 9 years were meted out to the others. Fourteen people had all their property confiscated while five were subsequently forced out of their homes as part of a nationwide security clampdown known as Operation K (“kulaks”). The study describes what motivated the farmers to resist and gives an account of what went on behind the scenes during the investigation. It also outlines how the treasonous group was fabricated and provides details of the hardships suffered by those who were convicted as well as the difficulties subsequently experienced in their district. The paper draws on documents from both central and regional archives.

The inland areas of the province of Castellón harbour a significant number of pilgrimage routes and mountain sanctuaries dating back to medieval times. Each year, these manifestations of intangible heritage and popular religiosity welcome a growing number of participants, drawn by nature, their heritage elements, and sport. These routes have given rise to new ones, and athletic events have appeared, some of them enjoying international fame, illustrating the strong relationship between cultural heritage, nature and sport, to such an extent that it has become a significant problem, as the high levels of outside participation can undercut the original nature of these practices.

Flora Thompson's account of the English countryside during the eighteen-eighties and nineties – Lark Rise to Candleford – continues to be an important source for rural history. In that text the protagonist's mother says that witches had 'all died out', and none had been known in her generation. The informants of late Victorian folklorists sometimes made similar remarks. Historians have taken such statements about witchcraft being a thing of the past at face value, inferring from them that plebeian concern about its influence was disappearing during the final decades of the nineteenth century. This article uses evidence from the English south midlands, and insights provided by anthropological studies of sorcery, to suggest an alternative interpretation. Rather than being a sincere statement of belief, assertions that witches had 'all died out' were part of a strategy to avoid speaking about a dreaded subject. Such pains were taken because it was believed that talking about witchcraft was a dangerous activity that would lead to the bewitchment of anyone with a loose tongue.

El presente trabajo es una aproximación a la investigación, a través de las fuentes existentes, de las construcciones vernáculas del municipio de Vega de San Mateo, en la comarca de las Medianías (Gran Canaria), como muestra del rico patrimonio industrial existente en Canarias.

Pour la Société d’agriculture du comté de Brome (2018).

"Le développement des expositions (ou foires) agricoles est lié au souci d'améliorer la production agricole en Europe au cours du dix-huitième siècle. La commercialisation croissante de l'agri-culture, la consolidation de grands domaines ruraux ainsi que les débuts de la révolution industrielle permettent alors d'entrevoir une efficacité et un rendement qui n'étaient possibles dans une éco-nomie de subsistance. L'expérimentation associée aux Lumières permet d'introduire de nouvelles méthodes et connaissances (en chimie et en génétique, par exemple) dans la culture, l'usage du sol et l'élevage. Ce virage scientifique, d'abord réservé aux élites, marque les débuts de l'agronomie. [...]"

The city of Aurangabad which was founded by Malik Ambar in 1622 as Fatehpur grew to be a cosmopolitan capital metropolis of Mughals when Aurangzeb became Mansabdar of the Deccan Suba in 1636. Aurangzeb further expanded the city with name ‘Khuzistaan-e-Buniyaad’ due to its strategic location and economic importance. In process of making the Fatehpur town a capital city of Mughals a number of artisans and craftsmen from northern parts of India. These people were called and settled in different localities of the Aurangabad city. Among these artisans who belonged to different castes and communities; a major migrant population of these artisans came from Bundelkhand and Rajputana. They belonged to the weavers, potters, jewelers, and many similar classes. With them they brought several cultural trends of northern and central India. Among many of the artisans who came to Aurangabad and were settled in the second level walled city in the settlement called ‘Begumpura’. Till today many of these artisans live in this region of the city and contribute in the diverse heritage of the city and its surrounds. The research paper is an ethnographic study of the people and artisan families of Begumpura through historical perspectives.

In a context of stark opposition between supporters and opponents to the wolf, the extent to which this particular predator is dangerous for humans is still an open question.
What lies beneath the negative perception of the wolf?
What should be the historian's contribution, based on historical sources and historical methods?
Thanks to a database of 4,700 cases of wolf attacks on human having occurred in France between 1580 and 1880, it is now possible to grasp the chronological evolution and spatial evolution of wolf related risks.
Undeniably real, though mostly belonging to a remote past, and statistically rare, though anthropologically intolerable, these attacks point to two opposite groups, predatory wolves occasionally preying on humans on one hand, rabid wolves striking indiscriminately a whole population on the other.
The attacks of the first kind occurred regularly in an unsafe environment, and gave rise to tales of "Ferocious Beasts" in times of dramatic crisis (1594-1600, 1691-1694, 1746-1750, 1764-1767, 1814-1819).
The second kind was spatially and chronologically less widespread, but sowed the seeds of mass hysteria, all the more persistent since the underlying sickness it forebode remained without a cure before the last third of the 20th century.
The conclusion between these two different realities gave Canis Lupus its negative aura, significantly dimmed recently however since it has entirely lost its material basis, at least in France.

Este estudio analiza procesos contemporáneos de cambio cultural en dos áreas rurales del Noroeste de España. Ambas estuvieron habitadas por grupos sociales con una marcada identidad cultural que ha dejado su impronta en la cultura material: los vaqueiros d’alzada y los maragatos. Mediante una metodología arqueológica se analizan las casas de tres pueblos en cada caso de estudio, desvelando cómo la materialidad juega un papel fundamental en los procesos de cambio cultural. En líneas generales, se produce un tránsito entre las lógicas preindustriales de la domesticidad campesina y la concepción de la casa como un instrumento representacional que sirve para exhibir capital simbólico y social a personas de ámbitos urbanos con mentalidades individualizadas. El estudio muestra cómo la combinación de metodologías arqueológicas y etnográficas puede politizar contextos de cambio cultural contemporáneos aparentemente neutros.

Palabras claves: cambio cultural, cultura material, arqueología de los espacios domésticos, gestión del patrimonio.
This paper explores contemporary processes of cultural change in two rural areas of northwest Spain. These areas were inhabited by social groups with strong cultural identities that have made its mark in the material culture: the Vaqueiros d’Alzada and the Maragatos. The houses of three villages in each case study are analyzed through an archaeological methodology, revealing the key role materiality plays in processes of cultural change. Overall, there is a transition between preindustrial forms of peasant domesticity towards a conception of the house as a representational device used to display social and symbolic capital by highly individualized people from urban areas. The study shows how a combination of archaeological and ethnographic methodologies can politicize contemporary contexts of cultural change that are apparently neutral. Key words: Cultural change, material culture, household archaeology, cultural heritage management.

Au XVIIe siècle,  malgré la parenthèse créée par les quelques années de la Ligue, assez vite fermée grâce à la collaboration des propriétaires, la hausse des prix agricoles et la modération relative du fisc assurèrent, jusqu'aux années 1640, une situation favorable aux exploitants. Loin d'être contraints de sacrifier leur patrimoine pour sauver l'exploitation, les marchands-laboureurs se lancèrent dans une véritable conquête foncière dont l'échelle est sans commune mesure avec le cadre des censives où l'analyse s'était d'abord cantonnée. Il y a là un comportement original qui souligne que les préoccupations des fermiers ne se réduisaient pas au seul capital agricole. Le foncier a pris une place de plus en plus diversifiée dans les stratégies d'exploitation et le système familial. C'est donc à une réévaluation qu'on voudrait procéder ici.

Dossier concernant la création de la paroisse de Schriek (évêché de Cambrai) et sa délimitation avec l'ancienne et vaste paroisse de Werchter (évêché de Liège), démontrant également le peu de précision des frontières entre les deux diocèses dans cette région du duché de Brabant même après la période des grands défrichements. Avec édition de quatre chartes (1309-1329).