Peasant culture of the Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region during the High Middle Ages. Perception schemes and domestic cycles

Abstract

This article offers an alternative perspective on peasant culture and settlements of the High Middle Ages. Most studies of rural settlements from the High Middle Ages are dealing with ecological and technological aspects of peasant life and political-economic relations with aristocrats. This article looks at cultural relations between peasants and between peasants and another cultural group, the aristocracy. Relations among the peasantry determine the internal cultural definition of the group, the cultural relations with other groups form the external cultural definition. The external cultural definition is based on mutual constitution of cultural groups. In this article the lay-out and composition of the farmyard is used to study the internal cultural definition. Thirty-four farmyards from the period 1125–1250 in the Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region are analysed for this purpose. The members of domestic groups (men, women and children) create perception scheme’s related to among others human-environment relations, gender and age during practices related to living and working in the house and on the farmyard. These are expressed in the lay-out of the yard and articulate with the life cycle of the yard which is made visible with the help of archaeological phases. The lay out of farmyards is compared to those in other regions of the north-western European plain. At the end a reflection is offered on the significance of the study of farmyards to the internal definition of peasants as a cultural group and the external definition of peasant culture vis à vis the aristocracy. What goes for the farmyards goes for castle sites, they too were related to perception schemes which are expressed in their lay-out.