The Eternal Peasant and the Timeless Village. Archaeology and Ideologies of the Past

Abstract

The perspectives on the medieval village and on the historical role of peasants have changed throughout the history of research. Traditional views on history saw rural life as unchangeable and therefore presumed that villages were rooted in the migration period. Modern research recognised the formation of the medieval village as a complex long-term process that, depending on the region, culminated in the 11th – 13th century. This paper takes a closer look at the situation in southwestern Germany, analysing research history on the one hand and selected episodes of medieval rural history on the other. The paper suggests that due to traditional views on the structure of history, peasants’ agency has been undervalued.

Keywords

• village formation
• southern germany
• open field system
• environmental history