HISB61H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Manumission, Summary Execution, Serfdom
Document Summary
Lecture 3: peasants and peasant society (may 22, 2014) Illiterate at least in modern sense: does not mean uncultured", uncivilized", primitive", 19th century historical view of medieval peasants, they were actually quite cultured. Our sources: because they were illiterate, they left no written testimonies. So most of our info comes from the lords: court rolls, sermons, iconography, archeology / material culture. Because of illiteracy, peasants had to develop an alternative culture. Peasant culture was more conservative and unchanging, when compared to elite culture: however, sometimes peasant" and elite" were interchangeable. Football until 17th century, was considered to be a popular game of both classes. Not until 17th century, when european elite disconnected itself from this culture and developed alternative culture/games (archery, cricket, golf) Peasant culture"s simplification of elite culture" the bible. The bible was a textual culture so elite culture". Illiterate peasants didn"t have access to the bible, especially if it was in latin.
