The rural society in the medieval Europe was based on well-defined hierarchy of the social classes. Though the people living in the rural areas were belonging to the lower class of the society, they were also divided into different sub-classes based on the tasks they performed in the society. These hierarchies were defined and stipulated by the churches and the emperors, and the rural society had to follow the orders or rulings. These hierarchies used to streamline the functioning of the rural societies as it defined the contribution of each individual towards the kingdom.
Further, the life of the rural class especially that of the peasants was that of the rural slaves. Most of the times, the rural regions in the medieval period were unhygienic
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There was very little or no shipping of excess crops to the other regions as the trade was limited. Further, due to the poor living conditions of the rural people, their life expectancy was on the lower side and the infant mortality rate was also high. The issues of plague or black death used to create a rift in the society as the people used to shun out the members of their neighbours in order to protect themselves. In the times of the plague the ill people were generally out casted from the villages and were also not given food. In such situations there was little or no support from the aristocrats. Additionally, children born with defects were also given up by their parents as they were believed to be unproductive in the future.
In addition to these violence was high in the rural medieval regions. Due to poverty, people often resorted to violence to grab their hands on the limited resources. There was no authority to curb these crimes and the villagers had to protect themselves from these violence activities. Many a times the culprits of these crimes used to go
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The people had huge faith on the Gods and the churches. As a result, in such dire situations, the role of the churches used to be prominent.
If we consider the role and the status of the women in the rural society, the women had less freedom. They had to seek the permission of their parents in marrying the partner of their choice. It was desired that they marry a partner with whom there can be economic security, honour in the society and reproduction of healthy children. In addition to completing the household works, the women also contributed by working on the fields as the rural family always needed an extra hand. However, the women were excluded from certain trades due to the order from the churches such as butchery and baking.
The rural people used to hold festivities regularly in order for recreation. During the festivities, the whole village used to participate and dine together. The marriages were also attended and celebrated together by the villagers. Every Sunday, the rural people used to gather in the church for the mass prayer. On these days, plays based on the bible was performed and viewed together by the rural
...urse the babies. Lives of servants were greatly affected during this time because they suddenly had to go about living a careful life in a filthy city without catching a disease.
“Feudalism was a political, economic, and social system in which nobles were granted the use of land that legally belonged to the king” (Doc. 1) "Social" life in the Middle Ages was the only kind of life people knew. Whether nobility, craftsperson or peasant your life was defined by your family, your community and those around you (OI). “The Church protected the Kings and Queens (OI).” “The King is above Nobles, Nobles above Knights, and the Knights are above serfs (Doc.1).” “ Nobles provides money and knights. Knights provide protection and military service (Doc. 1).” Social network, your village and your local nobility, was your family (OI).” “From the moment of its baptism a few days after birth, a child entered into a life of service to God and God’s Church (Doc.3).” “Every Person was required to live by the Church’s laws and to pay heavy taxes to support the Church (Doc.3).” “In return for this, they were shown the way to everlasting life and happiness after lives that were often short and hard (Doc. 3).” In conclusion, this is what it was like in the Middle Ages from a social
One of the major effects of the Bubonic Plague was the immense death that occurred, especially of the lower classes. This complete resetting of society is what would lead to social mobility of the poorer classes. For instance, one could think of the situation in terms of supply and demand. Before the Plague,
The bottom part of the society included the peasants which made up 85% of the population, the peasants was divided into sub-classes, and these sub-classes involved the farmers, craftsmen or artisans and merchants (Hackney, 2013). The highest ranking of the peasants were the farmers, farmers who owned their own lands were ranked higher than those who did not. After the farmers, there were the craftsmen or artisans. The craftsmen or artisans worked word and metal and some of them became well-k...
If that wasn’t enough, a series of poor harvest had occurred. This meant the price of food would increase dramatically. This took effect on people dying of starvation and malnutrition. Homeless and malnutrition citizens were becoming a danger to society, due to the dangerous measures they were enduring to find food. This was becoming more of a danger to the society. The government was becoming more and more concerned for them, and acted as fast as they could. They decided to make every parish in charge of the poor and unemployed.
Also they were relatively small regardless of their wealth because of the absence of medication for disease. The life expectancy was astonishingly short (approximately 40) and it’s also disturbing how common it was and often people died. One in every three babies died before they reached one, and half the people will never achieve the age of
In the Middle Ages, people were born into different classes. Whichever class a person was born into, that class would determine that particular person’s life and fate. It would usually be the same for all of the other people in that class (if they didn’t catch a disease or anything like that). The particular people who I am talking about though are the tradesmen. They were hard workers some of the time, and for the rest of their time, they would spend traveling and trading goods “around the world” (just around Europe). They had very little free time, so they would spend very little time with their friends and families.
... in the church so much that they were willing to devote their whole lives to it. Whilst this period did see a rise in the influence of the church, this reflected a need for people to find some comfort against the hardships of disease, wars and the chaos from government collapsing.
A hierarchical society of Kings granting land to nobles, who would then give a fief to a knight in return for service. The knight would then have peasants or serfs working on their fief. However, as the plague spread, many peasants died and their labour could not be replaced. This loss of workforce had a significant impact upon the economy as grain was not being harvested and livestock roamed free. The agrarian economy had been severely damaged, the land became uncultivated and returned back to its natural state.
1. A hierarchy was a very important system in the late medieval ages. It was used to define the characteristics of the peoples and their rankings. For example, the king would give some of his lands to the nobles in return for loyalty and military, the nobles would give some of their land and protection to the knights in return for loyalty and service, and the knights would give protection to serfs and freemen in return for labour. If there was no hierarchy system, the whole kingdom would have collapsed and would have resulted in the everything going out of control.
Child laborers led very hard and grossly disgusting lives of filth. Generally the living quarters of laborers were poorly built, rotting, even falling down, with little
In conclusion, women’ status was very low at the ancient society because they must stay at home and took after their husband, father and sons. They must build the virtue figure and did well jobs at home and couldn’t charge the family affairs. For increasing the women’s status, they must accept the education and don’t rely on others. In the future, I hope many women accept the education and make themselves become stronger than before.
The culture was quite simple as it was based around village life, the many seasons within the agricultural year, the folklore of the lands, and the church, which had gained a strong-hold of all the classes of the era. Surprisingly, the church had little impact on the peasant classes as most were considered illiterate, and had little time to delve into the culture outside of their own factual rituals, which were rather fast, but the people of the lower-classes were rather superstitious, which means that the peasant classes were genuinely not very religious. The Serfs, would and could be conscripted and sent off to war in the place of their lords, which was a common accordance in such feudal systems. From the historical analysis provided, it can be seen that male serfs were often conscripted as a form of punishment for “insubordination” as it led to a charge that bettered the standing of the lord and dehumanised the serf. Subsequently, in the agrarian-based serf society, women were the ones at a disadvantage as their lords would use them as a commodity, in such means as reproduction to increase revenue.
Written by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the fourteenth century, The Canterbury Tales and more specifically it’s prologue, shed a great deal of light on the rising middle class in (fourteenth century) England. Despite the fact that some readers may not know a lot about the time period today, Chaucer’s writing in the prologue elaborates on topics such as occupations, wealth, education, and political power. Scholar Barbara Nolan writes of the prologue, “it is more complex than most…It raises expectations in just the areas the handbooks propose, promising to take up important matters of natural and social order, moral character, and religion and outlining the organization the work will follow” (Nolan 154). In other words, while noting the distinct complexity of the writing, Nolan points out that Chaucer’s prologue gives the reader a lot to digest when it comes to both background information and overall form of the following writing. Focusing on the background information supplied in the prologue, readers quickly become educated about middle class England in the fourteenth century despite having been born hundreds of years later.
To start off, gender relations varied between urban-based civilizations and pastoral or nomadic societies. Urban-based civilizations, with the development of social classes, also contracted gender inequities. Men often