Medieval Peasant World I: Culture and Religion

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Medieval Association for Rural Studies (MARS)

Organizer Name

Philip Slavin

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of Kent

Presider Name

Steven Bednarski

Presider Affiliation

Univ. of Waterloo

Paper Title 1

Rural Orphans and Underaged Heirs in the Later Medieval English Village

Presenter 1 Name

Miriam Müller

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Univ. of Birmingham

Paper Title 2

Peasants in Land Courts: Way of Argumentation and Behavioral Strategies of Peasants in Fifteenth-Century Muscovy

Presenter 2 Name

Angelina Kalashnikova

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Central European Univ.

Paper Title 3

Villein Rights to Make Wills: Property and Death on the Borders of Canon, Customary, and Common Law

Presenter 3 Name

Abigail Sargent

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Princeton Univ.

Start Date

12-5-2016 1:30 PM

Session Location

Bernhard 209

Description

This session is dealing with the topic of Peasant Cultures. The topic of 'peasant culture' (referred by some as 'popular culture') remains a badly understudied field, despite some significant contributions in the 1980s and 1990s. In particular, the topic of peasant religiosity and rustics' relationship with local parish priests remains largely a _desideratum_. Apart from their everyday earthly concernes, such as tilling local fields, milking cows and shearing sheep, medieval peasants had an eclectic and sophisticated cultural and mental world, embedded into and dictated by their values, beliefs and emotions.The proposed panel aims to raise the scholarly awareness of this topic and the urgent need to fill this cognitive gap, by attracting a number of original and insightful papers that would shed light on this largely neglected field.

Philip Slavin