Neuerscheinung: C.I. Hammer, A Large-Scale Slave Society of the Early Middle Ages

["Geschichte Bayerns (Dr. Daniel Schloegl)" <schloegl@kbl.badw-muenchen.de>]

Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2002 12:04:50 -0400
From: "jona hammer" <jonahammer@hotmail.com> (by way of Jona Hammer
<hammer@duq.edu>)
Subject: Fwd: Antw: Neuerscheinung "Geschichte-Bayerns"
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BUCHANZEIGE


Carl I. Hammer, A Large-Scale Slave Society of the Early Middle Ages;
Slaves and their families in early medieval Bavaria, Aldershot (UK),
Ashgate Publishing, 2002


Most historians of early-medieval Europe (8th to 11th centuries) view
slavery as a Roman institution which had become marginal to or was fast
declining in a society dominated at the lower social levels by small
peasant proprietors and tenants.  This view is heavily influenced by the
arguments which the great French medievalist, Marc Bloch, formulated in
two classic articles.  The essence of his position was to draw a sharp
distinction between the gangs of landless slaves who worked exclusively on
the master's estate or demesne, and those who were established on small
dependent tenancies in return for dues in various forms and for labor
services.  Bloch argued that the former, the landless slaves, were the
only "true" slaves.  Because of their low productivity and insufficient
fertility, they inevitably would disappear.

This study argues, on the contrary, that this distinction misunderstands
the fundamental organizational principle of the early-medieval estate and
that the legal, economic and social conditions prevailing amongst the
dependent populations of early-medieval Europe do not differ fundamentally
from those known in other slave societies studied by historians and social
scientists.  In order to demonstrate this second point, the analytical
framework developed by the Harvard sociologist, Orlando Patterson, in his
classic work, Slavery and Social Death, is adapted to an historical case
study using the exceptionally rich historical sources available for an
important early-medieval society, Bavaria.  As a result of this
documentation, it is possible to explore social aspects of slave life such
as the development of family institutions which are not otherwise
accessible in this period.

The study is divided into two parts.  The first part, "Historical
Commentary", begins with an introduction to the historical problem of
early-medieval slavery and a short history of early-medieval Bavaria
(Chapter 1) together with an exploration of the special terminology of the
historical sources (Chapter 2).  The "Historical Commentary" then
discusses a series of topics adapted from Patterson's model which provide
a complete historical overview of the institutions and conditions of
Bavarian slavery: the institutional framework, labor requirements, family
structures, legal status, and material conditions of slavery (Chapter 3);
sources of slaves (Chapter 4); manumission of slaves (Chapter 5);
"ultimate slaves" (Chapter 6); and quantitative evidence for slavery
(Chapter 7); before providing a comprehensive summary and evaluation of
the evidence using Patterson's definition of slavery as, "the permanent,
violent domination of natally alienated and generally dishonored persons"
(Chapter 8).

The "Historical Commentary" is based upon a comprehensive collection of
primary documents, each referenced as it occurs in the discussion.  These
"Documents" are then provided in English translation in the second part of
the study.  They include extensive excerpts from the Bavarian Law Code and
other legal documents (Chapter 9).  But the largest group of translated
documents comes from the collections of private deeds which survive in
unusually large numbers for early-medieval Bavaria (Chapter 10).  Finally,
literary and hagiographical sources are included (Chapter 11).  Each of
these "Document" Chapters also includes a short introduction with an
historical explanation of each document type to make them understandable
to students and non-specialists.  Bibliographies of the relevant primary
and secondary sources are provided to enable further research.

This study investigates a subject of fundamental importance to
early-medieval history using an analytical framework familiar to all
scholars working on slavery.  In addition, it provides a large selection
of relevant documents in translation and not readily available elsewhere.
For those reasons it should be of interest both to medieval historians and
to all others working on comparative aspects of slavery.


Weitere Informationen ueber: http://www.ashgate.com/.




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