Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Peasants
(5,965 words)

1. Terminology and constructions

1.1. Exonyms and endonyms

Like Bauer for Germany and paysan for France, the scholarly descriptive term peasant denotes a group of agricultural producers with specific economic and social characteristics that set them apart from self-sufficient land and estate owners as well as from from domain tenants and manorial tenants, but also from unmarried villagers without land or a house (Laborer, unlanded, Cotta…

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Wunder, Heide, “Peasants”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 05 December 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_017363>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20200721



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