Peasants,families and the land market or,what Engels,chayanov and goody hath wrought for medieval England

Smith, Richard M., ed. Land, Kinship and Life Cycle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. 518 pp. including bibliography and index. $59.50 doth.     

Population-specific stature reconstruction for medieval Trondheim,Norway

Temporal changes in average stature are often used as a measure of a past population's adaptation, or lack of it. Traditionally, stature estimates have been calculated using formulae derived from limb proportions of cadavers. However, many authors have noted the problem of regional or population variation in body proportions of such reconstructed ratios. Before differences in stature can be attributed to environmental adaptation, ‘ethnic’ or population differences in limb ratios must be taken into account. The present paper calculates the stature of a medieval Norwegian skeletal sample using archaeological plan femur length and dry bone femur length. The author presents a variety of formulae and compares the stature derived from these calculations to the stature derived from archaeological plans. The Trondheim statures are then compared to stature reconstructions of other contemporary populations.     

Literacy, reading, and writing in the medieval West

Over the last quarter century, a plethora of studies on literacy, reading, and writing in medieval Europe have contributed significantly to our understanding of medieval society and culture. Nevertheless the sheer number of these studies and their authorship by scholars in several different disciplines have obscured the relationships between these studies, their common themes and their differences. This essay seeks to survey this literature and its background, to explicate its contributions to the field of medieval history, and to suggest avenues for future study. It also reveals how approaches developed outside medieval studies were borrowed and adapted by medievalists, and how the study of literacy, reading, and writing in the Middle Ages has, in turn, influenced the work of ancient and modern historians.     

To Excel at bridewealth,or ceremonies of Office

At a bridewealth payment made at the start of a wedding in Papua New Guinea, the groom diligently kept a note of contributions from relatives and co‐workers. The next day, he used one of his employer's computers to compile an Excel spreadsheet that detailed all the guests, what each one brought, and, in a separate column, its value in money. Turning people's gifts into nominal amounts of money helped register these into an enduring electronic form. The spreadsheet – an all too familiar tool of enumeration – gave the groom a record of transactions going forward. Papua New Guinea is most often known for the widespread emphasis placed on gift‐giving, especially the large prestations that are particularly important in the making of ‘Big Men’ and which are based on the belief in the high status of the giver and the onus of reciprocity. Today, spreadsheets permit transactions to be analyzed in a very different way – namely, in terms of currency‐like properties – allowing Papua New Guineans to understand, tap into and ultimately control the powers of money that echo current debates about the manipulation of big data.     

Literacy,reading, and writing in the medieval West

Over the last quarter century, a plethora of studies on literacy, reading, and writing in medieval Europe have contributed significantly to our understanding of medieval society and culture. Nevertheless the sheer number of these studies and their authorship by scholars in several different disciplines have obscured the relationships between these studies, their common themes and their differences. This essay seeks to survey this literature and its background, to explicate its contributions to the field of medieval history, and to suggest avenues for future study. It also reveals how approaches developed outside medieval studies were borrowed and adapted by medievalists, and how the study of literacy, reading, and writing in the Middle Ages has, in turn, influenced the work of ancient and modern historians.     

Lords,settlers and shifting frontiers in medieval Catalonia

This article examines how settler conditions on formerly Muslim-ruled land in the area known as New Catalonia (in north-eastern Iberia) changed as the territory was consolidated by Christian landlords and migrants from the north, and increasingly buffered from the border with Islam by conquests against Muslim Valencia over several generations following its conquest in the mid-twelfth century. Most landlords responded to the conditions of the local land market, but there is little evidence that the region as a whole, or even favourable sub-markets, experienced a straightforward trajectory from liberal to heavier tenant obligations. While lords in Old Catalonia are known to have limited peasant mobility from the later twelfth century in order to diminish an exodus to territory with more franchises in New Catalonia, lords in New Catalonia from the early thirteenth century were not able to respond to a similar extent to the territorial offerings in northern Valencia. Their overall ability to erode or reformulate exemptions and other privileges was checked by customary practice, insufficient settlement density and increased regulation which accompanied a rise in royal administrative capacity.     

Lords,settlers and shifting frontiers in medieval Catalonia

This article examines how settler conditions on formerly Muslim-ruled land in the area known as New Catalonia (in north-eastern Iberia) changed as the territory was consolidated by Christian landlords and migrants from the north, and increasingly buffered from the border with Islam by conquests against Muslim Valencia over several generations following its conquest in the mid-twelfth century. Most landlords responded to the conditions of the local land market, but there is little evidence that the region as a whole, or even favourable sub-markets, experienced a straightforward trajectory from liberal to heavier tenant obligations. While lords in Old Catalonia are known to have limited peasant mobility from the later twelfth century in order to diminish an exodus to territory with more franchises in New Catalonia, lords in New Catalonia from the early thirteenth century were not able to respond to a similar extent to the territorial offerings in northern Valencia. Their overall ability to erode or reformulate exemptions and other privileges was checked by customary practice, insufficient settlement density and increased regulation which accompanied a rise in royal administrative capacity.     

Fast or feast: reconstructing diet in later medieval England by stable isotope analysis

In this pilot-study, which was designed to assess the range of isotopic variation in English medieval populations, we present the results of stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen of human and animal bone collagen from three later medieval sites in Northern England.The isotopic values observed for the rural hospital of St. Giles by Brompton Bridge (N. Yorks.), the Augustinian Friary at Warrington and a mass-grave with casualties from the Battle of Towton (N. Yorks.) are significantly different from those reported for other archaeological populations in Britain, namely by their very enriched δ¹⁵N ratios which are combined with almost entirely terrestrial carbon signals. We discuss possible explanations for the unusual human data and argue on grounds of the available faunal data, that a mixed diet of terrestrial, marine and freshwater resources is most likely. This may indicate the significant impact of the medieval fasting regulations on everyday subsistence. We conclude that stable isotope analysis can complement the available historical information on diet in the Middle Ages.     

Literacy,authorship, and belief in medieval and renaissance Europe

Heresy and Literacy, 1000–1530. Edited by Peter Biller and Anne Hudson, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 23 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), xxv + 293 pp., £37.50/$59.95 cloth.

Literature, Politics and National Identity: Reformation to Renaissance. By Andrew Hadfield (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), xvii + 261 pp., £35.00/$59.59 cloth.

Early Cambridge Theatres: College, University, and Town Stages, 1464–1720. By Alan H. Nelson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), xiv + 179 pp., £35.00/$59.95 cloth.     

Deal or no deal: the outlook for agricultural land investment in Africa

Recent sharp increases in food prices have prompted some food-importing countries to promote the acquisition of farmland abroad as a strategy to secure food supplies at affordable prices. Businesses are recognizing new opportunities for strong returns from agricultural investment, including agri-food, biofuels and other agricultural commodities. Dubbed 'land grabs' in the press, large-scale land acquisitions have kindled much international debate, in which strong positions are taken on the impacts of such investments on the environment, rights, sovereignty, livelihoods, development and conflict at local, national and international levels. This article provides an analysis of this complex and shifting situation, focusing on Africa and drawing on quantitative inventories of land acquisitions in four countries and on a small sample of land deals. The article lays out key trends and drivers, and discusses the main features of international land deals before analysing the main risks and opportunities involved, focusing on implications for local, national and global food security. The article concludes by outlining practical steps to make the renewed momentum in agricultural investment work for development, and avoid the pitfalls of exacerbated political tensions.     

The penalties for treason in medieval life and literature

Treason appears to have fascinated the middle ages. As the most fundamental felony, it struck at the rools of feudal society through a complex of crimes: compassing or plotting the death of the sovereign, betraying his realm to an enemy, counterfeiting his coinage or falsifying his signature, seducing his wife or the wife of his son and heir. The basis of the felony was the same — betrayal of trust by an attack upon the security of the state, its administrative or economic validity, or the legitimacy of the succession — whether directed against the king or some lesser liege lord, and the law made no absolute distinction between high and petty treason. Both demanded exemplary punishment and drawing, hanging, emasculation, disembowelling, beheading, and quartering were employed in various combinations. In rare and aggravated cases flaying alive seems to have been included. This paper, though surveying the legal, moral, and symbolic bases of the penalties for treason, concentrates on the evidence for flaying, which has largely been ignored. It reviews and analyses the legal, historical, and literary records of this exceptional penalty. The frequency with which it occurs in literature, and the varied thematic use made of it to express abhorrence of treason, illustrates the significance which that crime had for the middle ages.     

Coercion,vengeance, feud and accommodation: homicide in medieval Iceland

Quantitative methods were employed to situate medieval Icelandic homicide in comparative context. Estimates of homicide rates were derived from samtíðarsögur, and found comparable with European rural medieval homicide estimates: late twelfth‐century Iceland was probably not as violent as a qualitative reading of the sagas might suggest. There were significant differences in patterns of vengeance between íslendingasögur and samtíðarsögur. In íslendingasögur, farmers committing homicide faced flight, outlawry or death; chieftains who initiated homicide might escape justice, although most became embroiled in feud. In samtíðarsögur, lethal vengeance following ordinary homicide was less common, and not a source of feud. These results generate a critique of previous notions of reciprocity in Icelandic vengeance, and support more recent interpretations of early medieval Icelandic society as a highly unequal, divided society. Both sources suggest that, although vengeance may have been legitimated in the language of ‘repayment’, vengeance is best understood within a cross‐cultural context as competitive behaviour designed to achieve superiority rather than parity.     

Oculus ecclesiae or the eyes of the people. Church and society in medieval Frisia

Medieval Frisia, also known as the ‘Seven Frisian Sea Lands’, consisted of clearly distinguishable parts: West Friesland (now part of the Dutch province of Holland), West-Lauwers Friesland (the present-day Dutch Province of Friesland), the Lands between the Lauwers and the Eems (the present-day province of Groningen) also called East Friesland, together with German East Friesland (Fig. 1). This study is concerned with the Lands between the Lauwers and the Eems; its main emphasis is on the lands (terrae) of Fivelgo and Hunsingo (Fig. 2).The history of medieval Friesland is not considered here in terms of modern political theory; instead, emphasis is on the forms of society and administration as they really existed, and on actual family and communal relationships. Viewed in this light the peace and truces inspired by the Church are seen to have played an important role.