Question

QUESTION: In what ways do you think that the values of modern western culture (western, in this context, means western Europe and its former colonies) are different from that of a medieval European peasant?

Answer 1

Modern Western culture peasant

Majority of Europeans however, were not nobles; they were rural peasants, the people who worked the land. In fact, early modern Europe was very much a rural and agricultural society, for in the 16th century, about 90% of the population lived on farms or in small rural villages. By this time, most European peasants were free, rather than tied to the land on which they lived. But they still owed their local nobility taxes and labor. Some peasants rose to the rank of landowners, but most rented their homes and worked on land owned by others.

Peasant life was governed by agriculture and based on the cycle of the seasons. In Northern Europe, peasants grew winter wheat, rye, barley, peas, and beans. Closer to the Mediterranean Sea, farmers concentrated on grains, olives, and grapes. In mountainous areas, peasants raised animals and grew whatever crops they could. Most of them lived simple lives with few material possessions. Their homes usually consisted of one or two rooms, which they shared with their animals during bad weather. They might own a bed, a table, a storage chest, and some cooking utensils, but that was about it. They ate simple fare, mostly bread, beans, peas, and vegetables, but only rarely any meat or dairy products.

Every so often, peasants got fed up with their situation and revolted in protest of harsh and greedy nobles, economic downturns, bad harvests, and land enclosures that diminished their potential for agricultural productivity and and increased their chances of starvation. Revolts broke out in Hungary in 1514, Germany in 1525, and England in 1549. In all three cases, the peasants were squashed like bugs.

Medieval European Peasant

The Medieval peasant together with freeman and villeins, lived on a manor in a village. Most of the peasants were Medieval Serfs or Medieval Villeins. The small, thatch-roofed, and one-roomed houses of the Medieval Peasant would be grouped about an open space (the "green"), or on both sides of a single, narrow street. The population of one of these villages often did not often exceed one hundred people. The Medieval Peasant shared a common life in the work of the fields, in the sports of the village green, and in the services of the parish church. But there was time for rest and entertainment in the life of a Medieval Peasant.

Daily Life of a Medieval Peasant on the Farms
The Daily Life of a Medieval Peasant who worked on the land was often hard.  A Medieval peasant had to labor on the lord's land for two or three days each week, and at specially busy seasons, such as ploughing and harvesting. The daily life of a Medieval peasant can be described as follows:

• The daily life of a Medieval peasant started at started in the summer as early as 3am.
• A Medieval peasant would start with breakfast, usually of pottage.
• Work in the fields or on the land started by dawn and the daily life of a Medieval peasant included the following common tasks:
  • Reaping - To cut crops for harvest with a scythe, sickle, or reaper.
  • Sowing - the process of planting seeds
  • Ploughing - To break and turn over earth with a plough to form a furrow
  • Binding and Thatching
  • Haymaking - cutting grass and curing it for hay.
  • Threshing - To beat the stems and husks of plants to separate the grains or seeds from the straw.
  • Hedging - creating boundaries
• Outside work finished at dusk, working hours for Medieval Peasants were therefore longer during the summer months.
• Peasants made some of their own tools and utensils using wood, leather and the horns from cattle.
• Women generally ate when her husband and children had finished and had little leisure time.