Tormented Voices: Power, Crisis, and Humanity in Rural Catalonia, 1140-1200

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Harvard University Press, 1998 - History - 186 pages

Mute in life as in death, peasants of remote history rarely speak to us in their own voices. But Thomas Bisson's engagement with the records of several hundred twelfth-century people of rural Catalonia enables us to hear these voices. The peasants' allegations of abuse while in the service of their common lord the Count of Barcelona and his son the King reveal a unique perspective on the meaning of power both by those who felt and feared it, and by those who wielded it. These records--original parchments, dating much earlier than other comparable records of European peasant life--name peasants in profusion and relate some of their stories.

Bisson describes these peasants socially and culturally, showing how their experience figured in a wider crisis of power from the twelfth century. His compassionate history considers demography, naming patterns, gender, occupational identities, and habitats, as well as power, coercion, and complaint, and the moralities of faith, honor, and shame. He concludes with reflections on the historical meanings of violence and suffering.

This rich contribution to medieval social and cultural history and peasant studies suggests important resources and ideas for historians and anthropologists.

 

Contents

MEMORIALS
1
PEOPLE
28
POWER
68
CULTURE
116
EPILOGUE
139
Usage Citations and Abbreviations
157
What Became of the Villages?
163
Further Reading
173
Copyright

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Page 176 - James C. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976); Samuel L.
Page 176 - Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance, Hidden Transcripts (New Haven, 1990). 45. See the songs composed and printed for the processions (reprinted in Dmytruk, "Pro chudesa

About the author (1998)

Thomas N. Bisson is Henry Charles Lea Professor of Medieval History, Harvard University. Among his publications are Fiscal Accounts of Catalonia under the Early Count-Kings (1151-1213) and The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History.

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