From Villa to Village? Relational Approaches within Roman and Medieval Iberian Rural Societies

Abstract

In the same way as the grand narratives about Roman rural societies have neglected peasantry and non-estate occupations while emphasizing the role of villae and slavery, medievalism studies have promoted a notion of medieval peasants and villages based on the assumption that there was no connection between those peri- ods and agents. The new scenario created by the recent disruptive development of rescue archaeology has revealed the importance of non-villae sites, non-nucleated villages, smallholders and peasantries and has opened up new avenues for the study of Roman and medieval rural societies in terms of settlement patterns, the agrarian economy and domination. This paper argues that the under-theorization of local societies has adversely affected our comprehension of peasantries and their archaeological record. Taking into con- sideration early medieval northwestern Iberian records, a relational social approach is proposed in order to analyse agrarian societies. In particular, this study explores relational identity, social risk and reciprocity, moral economy, closure theory and pa- tronage relationships.