feudalism

Examples of feudalism in the following topics:

• Preindustrial Societies: The Birth of Inequality

  • Medieval Europe was a pre-industrial feudal society.
  • Instead of producing crops for a market, workers exchanged the crops they grew for access to land, which was owned by a feudal lord.
  • Two specific forms of pre-industrial society are hunter-gatherer societies and feudal societies.
  • Broadly speaking, feudalism structured society around relationships based on land ownership.
  • This painting from feudal time shows how fields surrounded the feudal manor where the noble who owned the farms lived--a good depiction of how society was oriented around the agricultural economy.

• Traditional Authority

  • In comparison to patrimonalism, feudalism has one major similarity and several important differences.
  • First, feudalism replaced the paternal relationship of patrimonalism with a contract of allegiance based on knightly militarism.
  • In feudalism, these individuals are replaced with vassals, who have contractual freedom, personal allegiance, and socioeconomic prominence.
  • Compare patrimonial government with feudalism within the context of traditional authority

• Class Conflict and Marx

  • For example, in the feudal stage, feudal lords owned the land used to produce agricultural goods, while serfs provided the labor to plant, raise, and harvest crops.
  • When the serfs rose up and overthrew the feudal lords, the feudal stage ended and ushered in a new stage: capitalism.
  • In feudal society, means of production might have included simple tools like a shovel and hoe.
  • In feudal times, feudal lords owned the land and tools used for production.
  • Feudalism ended with class struggle between serfs and lords, and gave rise to a new stage, capitalism.

• State Formation

  • In Medieval Europe, feudalism furthered the rationalization and formalization of the state.
  • Feudalism was based on the relationship between lord and vassal, which became central to social organization and, indeed to state organization.

• Rational-Legal Authority

  • Weber wrote that the modern state based on rational-legal authority emerged from the patrimonial and feudal struggle for power uniquely in Western civilization.

• Caste Systems

  • Compare the caste system in ancient India with the estate system in feudal Europe

• Open vs. Closed Stratification Systems

  • When ascribed status is used to determine social position, fixed roles develop, such as those of lord and serf in feudal Europe.

• Thinking Globally

  • Wallerstein traces the rise of the world system from the 15th century, when the European feudal economy suffered a crisis and was transformed into a capitalist one.

• Social Mobility

  • In feudal Japan and Confucianist China, wealthy merchants occupied the lowest ranks in society.