Verenperijät. Väkivalta ja yhteisön murros itäisessä Suomessa 1500-1600-.luvulla by Matti Matikainen (review)

Abstract

io6 SEER, 82, I, 2004 translations are smooth and colloquial, though specialists may take issue with some liberties that seem to have been taken with what is, admittedly, linguistically a very problematic body of material. Given the diversity and complexity of these documents, some may regret that Fudge has chosen to organize and link materials together in an essentially chronological framework, rather than group them in a thematic manner. What emerges is a kind of documentary narrative. Individuals who come to the Hussite period with little background, therefore, will develop a good picture of developments in these two decades. It may be more difficult for them to grasp the themes and interrelationships reflected by these materials. This consideration, however, should not obscure the considerable accomplishment of this book. It will be used by all who are interested in the issues of war, peace, religious and social reform and who do not command the linguistic tools necessary to study these in the context of fifteenth-century Bohemia. Department ofHistory PAUL WX. KNOLL Universityof Southern California Matikainen, Matti. Verenperiyat. Vdkivalta ja yhteisdnmurrositdisessaSuomessa i5oo-i6oo-.luvulla. Bibliotheca Historica, 78. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Helsinki, 2002. 229 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. English language summary. Index. Price unknown. MATIKAINEN has written a substantialpiece of scholarly research, with full academic apparatus,thatwillbe of interestto late-medievaland earlymodern historians of crime and mentalities. It is focused on crimes of violence, and representsa contributionto thehistoriographicaldebates,launchedin Finland in such worksas P. Renvall, Suomalainen Isoo-luvun ihminen oikeuskatsomustensa valossa (Turku, 1949), and H. Ylikangas, Valtajavdkivalta keski ja uuden ajan taitteen Suomessa (Juva, I988) on the historyof interpersonalviolence in Finnish society, of how it seems to decline quantitatively during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and established new norms, whereby disputes and crimesareresolvedin the Courtsby litigationand the stateassertsa monopoly on the use of violence, instead of the exercise of privateviolence between the perpetrators and the families of the victims. This is naturally a multidisciplinary study, related to the work of scholars like Elias Norbert, R. Muchembled and MaryDouglas. In the earlystagesof Finnishsociety, the basisforthe treatmentof crimesof violence was the blood feud. The familyor kinof the victim had an obligation, unless he formallyreleased them on his death bed, known as 'inheritanceof the blood', a moral duty to seek satisfaction from the aggressor. But in the course of the middle ages, and influencedby the spreadof Christianity,a code of conduct had emerged whereby the aggrieved kin accepted compensation from the perpetratorin the form of money and goods and this was publicly registered in the popular district Court. Over time an agreed tariff of compensation became established.This studycovers a selection of parishesin easternFinland,fromeasternHame, Savo, FinnishKareliaand theconquered REVIEWS I07 province of Kakisalmi, ceded by Russia at the peace of Stolbova in I6 i 7. This introduced a complication in that many of the inhabitants there were of the Orthodox faith, quite distinct from the Lutheran Finns and had their own traditions. Matikainen's book is dedicated to illustrating changes in mentalities or attitudes to violent crime at all levels of society in this period. It was emphatically not confined to the lower orders, mainly peasants practising beat-burn agriculture, but included clergymen, the military, noblemen and public officials. All members of society shared a well established reputation for quarrelling violently in public and private places, usually under the influence of alcohol, and eventually assaulting each other, most often with the paukko, the lethal knife which all adults seemed to carry, but also with axes, sickles or anything else that came to hand. Apart from soldiers, firearms were rather inifrequently involved. This violence was nearly all spontaneous, cases of premeditated assault are recorded but were infrequent. It is unfortunate that the valuable contributions which Matikainen makes to the study of this subject will remain closed to those without the command of Finnish and Swedish. His aim has been to illustrate the mentalities behind the violence, and shifts in attitude over time, from the relatively abundant Court records of the day, in which the actual words of the participants, and the circumstances of the incidents are described. The core of the collection consists of records of I38 cases of homicide, where the 'recovery of...