People and Space in the Middle Ages, 300-1300
Edited by Wendy Davies Edited by Guy Halsall Edited by Andrew Reynolds
The contributors to this book address what determined the size and shape of communities in Britain, France, Spain and Iceland in the early historic past, and the ways that these communities delineated themselves in physical terms.
This book compares community definition and change in the temperate zones of southern Britain and northern France with the starkly contrasting regions of the Spanish meseta and Iceland. Local communities were fundamental to human societies in the pre-industrial world, crucial in supporting their members and regulating their relationships, as well as in wider society. While geographical and biological work on territoriality is very good, existing archaeological literature is rarely time-specific and lacks wider social context; most of its premises are too simple for the interdependencies of the early medieval world. Historical work, by contrast, has a weak sense of territory and no sense of scale; like much archaeological work, there is confusion about distinctions – and relationships – between kin groups, neighbourhood groups, collections of tenants and small polities. The contributors to this book address what determined the size and shape of communities in the early historic past and the ways that communities delineated themselves in physical terms. The roles of the environment, labour patterns, the church and the physical proximity of residences in determining community identity are also examined. Additional themes include social exclusion, the community as an elite body, and the various stimuli for change in community structure. Major issues surrounding relationships between the local and the governmental are investigated: did larger polities exploit pre-existing communities, or did developments in governance call local communities into being?
- Edited by Wendy Davies
- Edited by Guy Halsall
- Edited by Andrew Reynolds
Other Titles in this Series
The Crisis of the Oikoumene
The Three Chapters and the Failed Quest for Unity in the Sixth-Century Mediterranean
Volume 14
The Beginning of Scandinavian Settlement in England
The Viking 'Great Army' and Early Settlers, c. 865-900
Volume 29
Text, Image, Interpretation
Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature and its Insular Context in Honour of Eamonn O Carragain
Volume 18
Settlements and Strongholds in Early Medieval England
Texts, Landscapes, and Material Culture
Volume 45
Churches and Social Power in Early Medieval Europe
Integrating Archaeological and Historical Approaches
Volume 42
Duelling with the Past
Medieval Authors and the Problem of the Christian Era (c. 990-1135)
Volume 21
England and the Continent in the Tenth Century
Studies in Honour of Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947)
Volume 37
Language and History in Viking Age England
Linguistic Relations between Speakers of Old Norse and Old English
Volume 6
Mosaics of Time, The Latin Chronicle Traditions from the First Century BC to the Sixth Century AD
Volume I, A Historical Introduction to the Chronicle Genre from its Origins to the High Middle Ages
Volume 33
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