Weert: a Scheldt polder village in the fourteenth century

St Bavo's abbey of Ghent reclaimed considerable land during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries on its estate at Weert, along the Scheldt in northeastern Flanders. Other lords, notably Jacques van Artevelde, also had interests in the polder, but their presence caused such hostility that two peasants with Weert connections were involved in the assassination of Artevelde's son in 1370. Poor soil and natural disasters forced St Bavo's to abandon the project in the late fourteenth century, after a final vigorous effort in the 1350s. The work of the monks and of the counts of Flanders had nonetheless separated Weert topographically from Flanders and diverted the Scheldt westward into its present course by the early fourteenth century. Despite a subsistence economy and a high incidence of poverty, conditions which might be expected to foster rapid turnover among the settlers, peasant society at Weert demonstrated remarkable stability.     

Waging war in the fourteenth century

The papers in this special issue exemplify how, through the study of sources beyond the chronicles which have tended to dominate historical writing about fourteenth-century military history in western Europe, we can advance our knowledge on how war was waged by the English — and on some occasions by their enemies too.     

Techniques of seigneurial war in the fourteenth century

Despite the many studies devoted to medieval military history, most work has concentrated on royal wars, neglecting the petty seigneurial wars that made up most of the large-scale, organised violence of the middle ages. This article, based on judicial records for dozens of seigneurial wars waged in fourteenth-century southern France, shows that lords' tactics were not keeping up with those of royal commanders. Although royal wars increasingly involved large numbers of foot soldiers, large siege engines, and artillery, local lords' bureaucratic and financial limitations restricted their adoption of new techniques. As had been the case for centuries, most lords' wars were focused on causing economic damage and affective trauma through raiding. After the first phase of the Hundred Years War, local lords began to employ significant numbers of mercenaries, allowing them to wage war more frequently and perhaps making their wars more violent, a development which partly reflects the economic pressures of the period.     

Techniques of seigneurial war in the fourteenth century

Despite the many studies devoted to medieval military history, most work has concentrated on royal wars, neglecting the petty seigneurial wars that made up most of the large-scale, organised violence of the middle ages. This article, based on judicial records for dozens of seigneurial wars waged in fourteenth-century southern France, shows that lords' tactics were not keeping up with those of royal commanders. Although royal wars increasingly involved large numbers of foot soldiers, large siege engines, and artillery, local lords' bureaucratic and financial limitations restricted their adoption of new techniques. As had been the case for centuries, most lords' wars were focused on causing economic damage and affective trauma through raiding. After the first phase of the Hundred Years War, local lords began to employ significant numbers of mercenaries, allowing them to wage war more frequently and perhaps making their wars more violent, a development which partly reflects the economic pressures of the period.     

Clerical "concubines" in northern Italy during the fourteenth century

This essay reconstructs the lives of a neglected group of women in the Christian church during the later Middle Ages. So-called clerical “concubines” were well-known in their communities, but their lived experience has been largely ignored by modern historians. Yet studying clerical concubines sheds light not only on the women themselves, but also on the social organization of the medieval Christian church. Drawing on information gathered from notarial acts across the northern Italian peninsula, I argue that concubines were not a unitary group. Their experiences varied instead according to their status and the regions they inhabited. For instance, while laywomen who became priests’ concubines moved into their lovers’ homes, nuns retained cells in their religious houses during these relationships. Furthermore, concubines in cities such as Treviso could openly live with their lovers and share their property, while in other places, such as Bergamo, severe legal restrictions on concubines made them a particularly vulnerable group.     

Multifocal eosinophilic granuloma with a possible trepanation in a fourteenth century Greek young skeleton

Multiple lytic lesions in the cranial remains of a young adolescent from medieval Corinth in Greece, display characteristics best associated with multifocal eosinophilic granuloma. Some of the lesions have marginal sclerosis indicative of healing. The lesions vary in size from less than one centimeter in diameter to over two centimeters. The larger lesions, in particular, appear to be the result of confluence between two or more lytic foci. These lesions, rarely described in archaeological skeletal material, result from a pathological disturbance within the reticuloendothelial system. One of the cranial lesions has a different appearance from the other lesions and may have been produced by a therapeutic trepanation. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Disputes,their conduct and their settlement in the village communities of eastern Brittany in the ninth century

There were formal and informal means for the settlement of disputes within the village communities of ninth‐century eastern Brittany, although both depended essentially on local knowledge of local history and on confidence in the good faith of those with the knowledge. Reference was not made to written law, nor sets of customs, nor principles; the answer to all problems was seen to lie in the past, and all problems were assumed to have an answer. Where the procedure was formal and the meeting presided over by some official, presidents do not appear to have determined the outcome; judgment was made and due settlement assessed by panels of ‘suitable’ local men. Peasant communities sometimes became involved in the disputes of high politics, through the property interests of more substantial landowners. In these cases the means of arriving at a judgment and the procedure of expressing it often differed: though local knowledge might be cited, cases were usually heard by the ruler, who then both judged and determined the due settlement Sometimes this appears to have been done for obvious political purposes.     

Migration in West Africa: a savanna village perspective

The author describes the determinants and impact of temporary labor migration from northern Ghana, an area dependent on subsistence agriculture, to the south, where employment opportunities in mining, commercial agriculture, and the public sector are relatively abundant and higher-paying. The effects on social organization, agriculture, and population dynamics are discussed. (SUMMARY IN FRE)     

17th century Huron village life: insights from the copper-based metals of the Ball site,southern Ontario,Canada

Copper-based metal artifacts from the Ball site, a late 16th – early 17th century Huron (Wendat) village in southern Ontario that doubled in size during its estimated 20-year existence, were analysed by INAA. The goal was to assess the number of kettles that had reached the village, explore the chronology of their arrival and examine patterns in their discard within the site. Our results suggest that about two to three dozen European copper, red brass, and yellow brass kettles may have reached the village during its occupation; that copper kettles may have been traded to the inhabitants of the village before brass kettles; that the new inhabitants may have brought some kettles with them; and that differences in the discarding of copper and brass pieces inside and outside longhouses indicate that yellow brass was possibly of lower value than red copper.     

Elaboration of a settlement system: the New England village in the federal period

Contemporary New England villages arose as nineteenth-century central places. The emergence of these commercial places reflected not the creation of something new out of whole cloth but an elaboration of an existing settlement system, a legacy of the colonial period and a manifestation of long-standing cultural habit. Town centers, more or less equally spaced and comprised of little more than a meetinghouse and a tavern, served as foci for town activities, as auxiliary central places. Most of the considerable localized economic exchange that characterized the colonial period occurred at dispersed places. The emergence of true central places about colonial town centers in the federal period marked a shift in scale or a general and widespread development of extra-local exchange, division of labor, and provision of centrality—the ability of a place to provide goods and services beyond the needs of its residents. Central places became accretions of full-time nonfarmers, of storekeepers, artisans, and professional people. Moreover, these places were interlinked to form a system of central places and, although a sorting process took place, the system was both a material manifestation of contemporary economic experience and an elaboration of the colonial settlement system.     

雾凇里的满族人原生态

<正>去年的春节刚过,我和几名同事来到了吉林。这是应吉林省旅游局的邀请参加"吉林雾凇节"的一次摄影创作活动,这对我来讲真是件高兴的事,因为,在我们同行里谁都知道,吉林,那可是拍雾凇"出片"的好地方。"雾凇"俗称"树挂",是北方地区在冬季里一种因气候影响而产生的特有的自然现象。在干燥寒冷的气候条件下,当     

Microfinance and poverty reduction: evidence from a village study in Bangladesh

To evaluate the competing claims on the impact of microfinance programs on multidimensional poverty, a village study in Bangladesh was conducted where three microfinance programs had been operating for more than five years. The study found that microfinance has resulted in a moderate reduction in the poverty of borrowers, as measured by a variety of socio-economic indicators, but has not reached many of the poorest in the village. To make microfinance a more effective means of poverty reduction other services such as skills training, technological support, education and health related strategies should be included with microfinance.     

Constructing gender and local morality: exchange practices in a Javanese village

The concept of exchange has been on the anthropological agenda since Marcel Mauss published his book Essai sur le Don in 1925. The nature of gift-giving and exchange practices has since in different ways been developed and criticised (e.g. Bloch and Perry 1989 Bloch M Parry J 1989 Introduction: money and the morality of exchange In M. Bloch and J. Parry (eds), Money and the morality of exchange Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp. 1–33  [Google Scholar]; Bourdieu 1977 Bourdieu P 1977 Outline of a theory of practice Cambridge Cambridge University Press [Crossref] [Google Scholar]; Derrida 1992 Derrida J 1992 Given time: 1. Counterfeit money Chicago and London University of Chicago Press  [Google Scholar]; Dumont 1986 Dumont L 1986 Marcel Mauss: A science in process of becoming In L. Dumont, Essays on individualism. Modern ideology in anthropological perspective Chicago and London University of Chicago Press pp. 183–201  [Google Scholar]; Levi-Strauss 1950 Levi-Strauss C 1987 Introduction to the work of Marcel Mauss Translated by Felicity Baker London Routledge and Kegan Paul  [Google Scholar]; Sahlins 1974 Sahlins M 1974 Stone age economy London Tavistock Publications  [Google Scholar]). However, exchanges are social practices that continue to puzzle and arouse curiosity within anthropology and related fields. The present article focuses on the vivid exchange practices that form part of social life in Sarijati village in Central Java.2 Sarijati is a pseudonym. this article is based on a research project sponsored by the danish research council for the humanities. fieldwork was carried out in central java in 1996–97 and in 1998. View all notes I will argue that exchanges here make up a social domain that articulates gender ideology and the reasoning of local morality.