Not to be confused with pheasants. Pheasants are a group of large Birds in the order Galliformes.

In a detail of Brueghel's Land of Cockaigne (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the 16th century. Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c 1525 &ndash September 9, 1569) was a Netherlandish Renaissance

A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Rural areas can be large and isolated (also referred to as "the country" and/or "the countryside over the course of time The term peasant today is sometimes used in a pejorative sense for impoverished farmers. A farmer is a person who raises living organisms for food or raw materials

There were free and unfree peasants. Free peasants could leave the manor as they wished. Unfree peasants had to buy their way out of the manor by paying their lord.

Peasants typically make up the majority of the agricultural labour force in a Pre-industrial society, depending on the cultivation of their land: without stockpiles of provisions they thrive or starve according to the most recent harvest. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture Pre-industrial society refers to specific social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the Industrial Revolution Tillage is the agricultural preparation of the Soil by Ploughing ripping or turning it Starvation (also called inanition) is a severe reduction in Vitamin, Nutrient, and Energy intake and is the most extreme form of In Agriculture, the harvest is the process of Gathering mature crops from the fields Reaping is the cutting of Grain Pre-industrial societies have diminished with the advent of globalization and as such there are considerably fewer peasants to be found in rural areas throughout the world. Globalization (or globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones Rural areas can be large and isolated (also referred to as "the country" and/or "the countryside over the course of time

Though "peasant" is a word of loose application, once a market economy has taken root the term peasant proprietors is frequently used to describe the traditional rural population in countries where the land is chiefly held by smallholders. A market economy is a realized Social system based on the Division of labour in which the prices of Goods and Services are determined in a A smallholding is a Farm of small size Often too small to be efficient the utility of smallholdings varies from place to place

Communities

In the great majority of pre-industrial societies, peasants constitute the bulk of the population. Peasant societies generally have very well developed social support networks. Especially in harder climates, members of the community who have a poor harvest or suffer some form of hardship will be taken care of by the rest of the community. Climate encompasses the temperatures humidity rainfall atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorogical factors in a given region over long periods of In Agriculture, the harvest is the process of Gathering mature crops from the fields Reaping is the cutting of Grain

Peasant societies can often have very stratified social hierarchies within them as well. A rural peasant population differs enormously in its values and economic behavior from urbanites and tends to be more conservative. Social conservatism is a political or moral ideology that affirms the government's role in encouraging or enforcing traditional values or behaviors in the belief that these are what Peasants are often very loyal to inherited power structures that define their rights and privileges and protect them from interlopers, despite their low status within those power structures.

Fernand Braudel devoted the first volume–called The Structures of Everyday Life. Fernand Braudel ( August 24 1902 &ndash November 27 1985) was the foremost French historian of the postwar era –of his major work, Civilization and Capitalism 15th–18th Century to the largely silent and invisible world that existed below the market economy.

The Peasant Wedding, by Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1567 or 1568

Since it was the literate classes who left the most records, and these tended to dismiss peasants as figures of coarse appetite and rustic comedy, the term "peasant" may have a pejorative rather than descriptive connotation in historical memory. The Peasant Wedding is a 1567 or 1568 Painting by the Flemish Renaissance painter and Printmaker Flemish (Vlaams in Dutch) is a popular informal term to refer to Belgian Dutch ( Belgisch-Nederlands in Dutch Dutch as spoken in Belgium Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c 1525 &ndash September 9, 1569) was a Netherlandish Renaissance Society was theorized as being organized in three “estates”: those who work, those who pray, and those who fight. ^[1]

In a barter economy, peasants characteristically have a different attitude to work than people in a money economy would. Barter is a type of Trade in which goods or services are directly exchanged Money is anything that is generally accepted as Payment for Goods and services and repayment of Debts.

Medieval European peasants

Russian peasants in Viktor Vasnetsov's "Moving House", 1876

The relative position of Western European peasants was greatly improved after the Black Death unsettled medieval Europe, granting far greater economic and political power to those peasants fortunate enough to survive the cataclysm. Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (Виктор Михайлович Васнецов ( Lop'jal, May 15 ( N Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' The Black Death, or the Black Plague, was one of the deadliest Pandemics in human history widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia

In the wake of this disruption to the established hierarchy, later centuries saw the invention of the original printing presses, widespread literacy and the enormous social and intellectual changes of the Enlightenment. A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium (such as paper or cloth thereby transferring an image traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write or the ability to use Language to read, write, listen, The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century

This evolution of ideas in an environment of relatively widespread literacy laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution, which enabled mechanically and chemically augmented agricultural production while simultaneously increasing the demand for factory workers in cities. traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write or the ability to use Language to read, write, listen, The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture manufacturing and transportation had a profound effect on the A factory (previously manufactory) or manufacturing plant is an industrial Building where workers manufacture goods A city is an Urban area with a large Population and a particular Administrative, Legal, or Historical status These factory workers with their low skill and large numbers quickly came to occupy the same socio-economic stratum as the original medieval peasants.

This was especially pronounced in Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent. Lacking any catalysts for change in the 14th century, Eastern European peasants largely continued upon the original medieval path until the 18th and 19th centuries. Catalysis is the process in which the rate of a Chemical reaction is increased by means of a Chemical substance known as a catalyst The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The Tsars then began to notice that the West had made enormous strides they had not, responding by forcing the largely illiterate peasant populations under their control to embark upon a Westernization and industrialization campaign. Tsar csar and tzar redirect here For other uses see Tsar (disambiguation. traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write or the ability to use Language to read, write, listen, Westernization or occidentalization (from occident, see wiktionary) is a process whereby societies come under or adopt the Western is a process of social and economic change whereby a human group is transformed from a Pre-industrial society into an industrial one

Peter the Great initiated a half-successful attempt to force more than 500 years' worth of social change in the space of a few generations. Modernization of agriculture in Eastern Europe and Russia was not achieved until after the October Revolution. The October Revolution (Октябрьская революция Oktyabrskaya revolyutsiya) also known as the Soviet Revolution

See also

"Peasants in a Tavern" by Adriaen van Ostade (c. Adriaen van Ostade (bapt Adriaen Hendricx 10 December 1610 – bur 1635), at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich

• Feudalism
• Petty nobility
• Folk culture
• Lower class
• Peasant revolt
• Popular revolt in late medieval Europe
• Slavery
• Anti-Rent War

Other terms for peasant

• Aloer
• Campesino
• Churl
• Cotter
• Fellah
• Free tenant
• Hari
• Honbyakushō
• Kulak
• Muzhik
• Pagesos de remença
• Peon
• Proletarian
• Serf
• Villein
• Smerd

Notes and references

1. ^ Richard Southern: The Making of the Middle Ages (1952)