Technological Advancements In The Medieval West

The Medieval West was an era of country folk and rural communities. During this era, agriculture was a means of survival and people lived in rural communities known as villages (Duby 167). In his article, Rural Economy and Country Folk in the Medieval West, Georges Duby recounts the daily lives of those who lived in the Medieval West during this time period. Those who lived in this time did not live an easy life. There existed many struggles within the communities. Many complications arose that were not present in say, the Roman Empire. According to Paul Veyne’s, Pleasures and Excesses in the Roman Empire, the Medieval West palled in comparison. In my own humble opinion, I would choose to live in Veyne’s description of the Roman empire as opposed

The Medieval West was not fortunate enough to have advanced technological strife 's at their disposal. Many times, the technology and equipment they could acquire was still of no use. Many times the technology would be obsolete to the point where the villagers would resort to using their bare hands to cultivate the land (Duby 171). This would make the Medieval West society extremely difficult to achieve any type of efficiency in one 's work. “Primitive technical equipment obviously restricted narrowly the individual 's productive capacity” (Duby 171). The unproductivity of this inferior technology would make work much more difficult as opposed to other societies. The Roman Empire for example made many great strides in their technological advancements. These advancements added comfort to the lives of its people.”Technology in this period did not pretend to dominate and revolutionize nature [...] but in isolated areas the ancients were capable of amazing feats” (Veyne 108). Technology such as the siphon would make aqueducts possible to expand many valleys and bring people their basic needs (Veyne 108). This shows technology would add extra comfort to one’s life as opposed to the medieval west’s