SOC 104 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Enclosure, Workforce Productivity, Productive Forces

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 104
• Professor: Zabedia Nazim

Document Summary

Canada can be described as a capitalist form of society. The dominant socioeconomic formation that developed during the middle ages was. Feudalism was an agricultural system that grew out of the ruins of the old slave societies. It was a complex system-social, economic, and political-of duties and obligations between individuals. Major class: there was an appropriating class of owners, the nobility, and a producing class of serfs, or peasants. There were also minor classes such as artisans, soldiers, and clergy. There was a hierarchy of wealth and power within the two major classes. The land was divided into manors or estates that were held by royalty and then parcelled out to lords or knights. Land could only be acquired through seizure (force), bestowal or marriage. The feudal lord acquires the surplus primarily from forced agricultural services. Peasants agreed to this state of affairs mainly due to political, legal or military force.