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three features of common-field systems:
1) the open fields
2) practice of common pasture on the stubble and fallow
3) regulation of cropping, grazing, other farm management *by an assembly of cultivators.*
i think the last may be very important. #EverySocietySelectsForSomething
1) the open fields
2) practice of common pasture on the stubble and fallow
3) regulation of cropping, grazing, other farm management *by an assembly of cultivators.*
i think the last may be very important. #EverySocietySelectsForSomething
where communal field systems were found [hoffman, pg. 27]: 
the communal field systems of nw "core" europe pushed strongly for cooperation and conformity. this among comparatively unrelated, outbred families remember. [hoffman, pg. 31 books.google.com/books?id=0pB9B…]:
in late antiquity/the early medieval period, nw europeans did *not* have communal-field systems based on non-kin. family farms were small and independent and were likely tied together along kinship (kindred) lines. [hoffman, pg. 35 books.google.com/books?id=0pB9B…]:
...in other words, nw euros of late antiquity/early medieval period would not have felt strong selective pressures for cooperation between non-kin.
one area of late antiquity/early medieval farming that was shared was common waste areas; didn't involve village assemblies, tho.
one area of late antiquity/early medieval farming that was shared was common waste areas; didn't involve village assemblies, tho.
i would add that this "traditional individualistic subsistence agriculture" of late antiquity/early medieval northern europe involved greater kinship/kindred ties than the later communal field system which was based on unrelated nuclear families. [hoffmann, pg. 41]:
hoffmann states that the communal field system started to appear by the early 7th century in two regions: 1) frankish gaul north of the loire; and 2) alemannic regions on both side of the upper rhine. [hoffmann, pg. 42. books.google.com/books?id=0pB9B…]
this is "core" core europe, then.
this is "core" core europe, then.
...frankish gaul esp around ghent.
seems to be that communal fields first appeared in the alemannic regions of the upper rhine *after* this region was absorbed by the franks, and that the three-course rotation of crops was a development of frankish gaul (ghent region). [hoffmann, pg. 44. books.google.com/books?id=0pB9B…]:
the communal field system then spread northwards, southwards, and eastwards across the north european plain by the late ninth-early tenth century. (i'll come back to what happened in england in some later tweets.) [hoffmann, pg. 44. books.google.com/books?id=0pB9B…]:
so communal open field systems were established in the old settled areas of nw medieval europe - sw germany, ne france/belgium, central england - between the early 700s and ca. 1000. as these populations increased, they expanded outwards into uninhabited areas. however...
...they generally tended to do so initially as independent farmers, not in communal groups. then in the 12th century, as land became scarce in these newly settled areas, communal fields were established. [hoffmann, pgs. 45-46. books.google.com/books?id=0pB9B…]:
after ca. 1150, settlers moving out of "core" europe into peripheral areas no longer migrated as indepdendent farmers but in (s'times very) large groups. they est'd communal field systems from the ouset east of the elbe, in poland, the pale in ireland. books.google.com/books?id=0pB9B…
these were the heydays of the lokators during the ostsiedlung. (^_^)
various populations peripheral to "core" europe also began to adopt the communal field system in the high middle ages: denmark, 11th C; bohemia, late 12th C; poland & sweden, 13th C. note that this is four, five, six centuries after the alemanni/franks. books.google.com/books?id=0pB9B…
here's hoffmann's map of where communal field, and other agricultural, systems were found in medieval europe. also a map by hopcroft indicating communal fields in "preindustrial europe," just for the heck of it (books.google.com/books?id=13LDA…):
so these communal field systems were coordinated by village assemblies, with no doubt the more prosperous farmers holding sway in the assemblies (not to mention the manor lords), but what happened to individualists who hard a hard time cooperating/submitting? [hoffmann, pg. 63]
open field villagers "felt that they were bound to help their neighbors and do what they could, each man in his office, to further the common good of their village." [hopcroft, pg. 24. books.google.com/books?id=13LDA… #SelectionPressures
clannishness in areas of less-communal field systems?! huh. [hopcroft, pg. 25. books.google.com/books?id=13LDA…]
more on how peripheral regions in medieval england, germany, and france all had less communal agricultural systems and, therefore, members of communities in these regions cooperated less with one another on a daily basis (unlike in the "core"). cambridge.org/core/journals/…
also less communal cooperation in farming in normandy, eastern europe, eastern & central germany, northern netherlands, and northern coast of germany:
populations that had communal field systems showed strong communitarianism. these people ‘‘thought instinctively in terms of the community.’’ this is "core" nw europe. cambridge.org/core/journals/…
in contrast, populations that had less communal field systems showed greater individualism or familialism, even clannishness. this is peripheral europe.
and the individualistic regions in close proximity to the "core" are *where the reformation happened.* cambridge.org/core/journals/…
and the individualistic regions in close proximity to the "core" are *where the reformation happened.* cambridge.org/core/journals/…
me previously:
i've been saying for a while now that i think the reformation (the radical reformation even more so) was a reactionary movement by near-peripheral european pops in response to developments in "core" europe such as the rise of christian humanism...
the reformation (and, later, the romantic movement) was a reactionary movement of the individualistic, particularistic, peripheral non-communal farming groups vs. the christian humanism (enlightenment) of the more communitarian, universalistic, "core" communal field system pops.
oh. should say that some of the radical reformation folks were actually more radical in the *other* direction: more radical than the christian humanists. mixed bunch those radical reformers!
from Rural Organization and Receptivity to Protestantism in Sixteenth-Century Europe (researchgate.net/publication/27…). field systems and the reformation:
