Filling the gap: Peasant Studies and the archaeology of medieval peasantry in light of the Northern Iberian evidence

Abstract

A new archaeology of peasantry has emerged in Europe in the last few decades in the context of development-led rescue excavations. As a result, new lines of inquiry, usually unconnected with other traditions of Peasant Studies, have been proposed. The main aim of this paper is to propose forms of interaction between current sociological and anthropological perspectives (Peasant Studies) and an archaeologically informed social history approach (Peasant Archaeology) in order to enrich the analysis of peasant societies, both in the past and the present. Moreover, challenging traditional approaches in historical and archaeological studies that see peasantry as a passive, subaltern, homogeneous class, avenues for a relational agency of peasantry considering archaeological records from medieval Iberia are considered.