600-1450+-+Europe+-+Theme+5

Theme# 5: Development and Transformation of Social Structures


 * Gender Roles and Relations


 * Family and Kinship
 * Racial and Ethnic Constructs
 * Christianity was the main source of cultural authority
 * Normans (northmen) and Vikings eventually absorbed into European society (after 1066 CE)
 * Crusades (1095-1204) were conducted against infidels
 * Including Muslims (especially Palestinians in the Holy Land)
 * After the crusades, the ethnic hostility ceased; European/Muslim trade increased
 * Ethnic relations with Asia improved
 * Social and Economic Classes
 * Decenteralized society
 * lords and retainers
 * local nobles built military and political relationships with other prominent individuals in their territories in order organize the territories
 * retainers devote their time and energy to the serivice of thier lords instead of cultivating food for their families
 * political authories and military specialists merged into a hereditary noble class
 * Serf and Manors
 * serfs: slaves and peasants took agricultural tasks and frequently intermarried; free peasants often turned themselves and their lands over to lords for protection
 * manors: large estate of the noble during the noble european ages
 * Roman and German recognized enslaved and free peasantry