PEASANT (WIK DEFINITION)

Peasant


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In a detail of Brueghel's Land of Cockaigne (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the 16th century.
A peasant, derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, the countryside or region, which itself derives from the Latin pagus, country district, is an agricultural worker with roots in the countryside in which he or she dwells, either working for others or, more specifically, owning or renting and working by his or her own labour a small plot of ground. The term peasant today is sometimes used in a pejorative sense for impoverished farmers.
Peasants typically make up the majority of the agricultural labour force in a Pre-industrial society, depending on the cultivation of their land: without stockpiles of provisions they thrive or starve according to the most recent harvest. Pre-industrial societies have diminished with the advent of globalization and as such there are considerably fewer peasants to be found in rural areas throughout the world. However, there are still peasant populations in Mexico, Central America, South America, Africa, India, China, Europe and various parts of Southeast Asia.

[edit] See also

"Peasants in a Tavern" by Adriaen van Ostade (c. 1635), at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Feudalism
Folk culture
Lower class
Peasant revolt
Popular revolt in late medieval Europe
Slavery

[edit] Other terms for peasant
Aloer
Campesino
Churl
Cotter
Felaheen
Free tenant
Honbyakushō
Kulak
Muzhik
Pagesos de remença
Peon
Proletarian
Serf
Villein
Smerd

[edit] Notes and references
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant"
Categories: Articles lacking sources from June 2007 All articles lacking sources Early Middle Ages High Middle Ages Farming history Feudalism Industrial Revolution Social history
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