People and space in the Middle Ages, 300-1300 / edited by Wendy Davies, Guy Halsall and Andrew Reynolds ; with illustrations by Alex Langlands.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Davies, Wendy, 1942-

Halsall, Guy.

Reynolds, Andrew (Andrew J.)

Langlands, Alex.

Series:

Studies in the early Middle Ages ; v. 15.

Studies in the early Middle Ages

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human settlements--Europe--History--To 1500.

Human settlements.

History.

Europe--Social conditions--To 1492.

Europe.

Social conditions.

Europe--Historical geography.

Historical geography.

Physical Description:

ix, 366 pages, 1 unnumbered leaf of plates : illustrations (1 color), maps ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Turnhout : Brepols, [2006]

Summary:

This book compares community definition and change in the temperature 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 archaelogical 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 archaelogical 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 large polities exploit pre-existing communities, or did developments in governance call local communities into being?

Contents:

List of Photos x

Introduction: Community Definition and Community Formation in the Early Middle Ages - Some Questions / Wendy Davies 1

Social Identities on the Macro Scale: A Maximum View of Wansdyke / Andrew Reynolds, Alex Langlands 13

Settlement Organization and Farm Abandonment: The Curious Landscape of Reykjahvetfi, North-East Iceland / Birna Larusdottir 45

Geography, Communities and Socio-Political Organization in Medieval Northern Iceland / Chris Callow 65

Communities of Dispersed Settlements: Social Organization at the Ground Level in Tenth- to Thirteenth-Century Iceland / Orri Vesteinsson 87

Boundaries of Knowledge: Mapping the Land Units of Late Anglo-Saxon and Norman England / Steven Bassett 115

Mapping Scale Change: Hierarchization and Fission in Castilian Rural Communities during the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries / Julio Escalona 143

Central Places and the Territorial Organization of Communities: The Occupation of Hilltop Sites in Early Medieval Northern Castile / Inaki Martin Viso 167

The Ending of the Roman City: The Case of Clunia in the Northern Plateau of Spain / Adela Cepas 187

Villas, Territories and Communities in Merovingian Northern Gaul / Guy Halsall 209

Community, Identity and the Later Anglo-Saxon Town: The Case of Southern England / Grenville Astill 233

Marmoutier: Familia versus Family. The Relations between Monastery and Serfs in Eleventh-Century North-West France / Paul Fouracre 255

Narrating Places: Memory and Space in Medieval Monasteries / Antonio Sennis 275

Populations, Territory and Community Membership: Contrasts and Conclusions / Wendy Davies 295.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [321]-346) and index.

ISBN:

2503515266

9782503515267

OCLC:

77258364