Beyond the market : : transactions, property and social networks in monastic Galicia, 1200-1300 / / by Esther Pascua Echegaray [and three others].

• Superior document: Medieval Mediterranean ; Volume 40
• VerfasserIn: Pascua Echegaray, Esther,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston ;, Köln : : Brill,, [2002]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2002
• Language: English
• Series: Medieval Mediterranean ; Volume 40.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

This volume deals with the social implications of land transactions, especially with the role of personal and institutional networks in a precapitalist society. The four authors discuss different aspects of the relationship between three monasteries (two Cistercians, Montederramo and Oseira, and one Benedictine nunnery, Ramiranes) and the peasant communities around them in thirteenth-Century Galicia. They use a Data Base to register 2500 'foros', the typical Galician land contract and more than 8000 people and their goods. The thesis of the authors is that monasteries did not exert their authority upon powerless peasants, but constraint by preexisting networks of local people. Most of the peasants involved in the transactions turned out to be members of 'middle groups' like knights, squires or upper peasants. The book is especially important for all those interested in social perspectives as a means to understand the medieval economy.

Table of Contents

Foreword -- List of Contributors -- Introduction: Transactions, Social Relations, and Monasticism in the Rural Medieval World -- I. The Logic of Exchange: Redistribution and Reciprocity... 3 -- II. The Dynamics of Society: Power and Social Relations...10 -- III. Methods: Microhistory and Computerized Analysis...17 -- IV: The Articles. 23 -- Vassals and Allies in Conflict: Relations Between Santa Maria De Montederramo and Local Galician Society in the Thirteenth Century / Esther Pascua -- Introduction: Personal Relationships and the Circulation of Goods.27 -- I. Social Agents. 36 -- II. The Processes...79 -- Monasticism, Lineage, and Community: Collective Organizations in Medieval Galician Society: (San Pedro de Ramiranes, 1200-1300) / Pablo Sanchez-Leon -- Introduction: The Social and Economic Dynamics of Class Organization...109 -- I. The End of the Civil Wars and the Introduction of Monastic Feudalism to Galicia...112 -- II. 'Patrimonialism' and Feudalism: the Social and Economic Foundations of Organizations in Pre-Industrial Societies...120 -- III. The Community of Nuns and the Definition of Inheritance within the Local Nobility...130 -- IV. The Clerical Chapter and the Gender-Based Division of Labour and Power...140 -- V. Knights, Landowners, and the Individualization of Property Rights within the Monastery...148 -- VI. Conclusions: Long-Term Class Organization and Social Differentiation...163 -- Monastic Strategy and Local Relations: The Social Influence of the Monastery of Oseira in the Thirteenth Century / Ana Rodriguez-Lopez -- Introduction: Cistercian Organization and Local Power...173 -- I. The Social World of Local Milites...176 -- II. Monastic Strategy and Local Relations...181 -- Social Mobility and the Personal Networks of 'Low-Intermediate Social Groups': Relations Between Communities of Peasants and Foreros and the Monastery of Oseira in the Thirteenth Century / Reyna Pastor -- Introduction...247 -- I. Peasant Communities and their Relations with Oseira...248 -- II. Foreros and the Monastery's Personal Networks...290 -- Bibliography...319 -- Maps...325.