Peasant

A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land ownership. Historically, this term describes people living under feudalism who paid rent, taxes, or services to a landlord.

In medieval Europe, peasants were categorized into three distinct social classes. These included non-free slaves, semi-free serfs, and free tenants. Peasants could hold land through various forms of tenure. These included fee simple, socage, quit-rent, leasehold, and copyhold. The term is often used to describe the majority of the agricultural labor force in pre-industrial societies.

In the Middle Ages, the open field system dominated much of Europe. Under this system, peasants lived on a manor presided over by a lord or a church bishop. They provided labor or rent to the lord to earn the right to cultivate the land. Certain areas like pastures, forests, and wastelands were held in common. This arrangement required constant cooperation among the peasants of the manor.

Over time, this communal system was replaced by individual land management and ownership.

Significant historical shifts changed the status of these workers. In the mid-14th century, the Black Death reduced the European population. This event made labor scarce and left more land for the survivors. Consequently, many laborers began to demand wages instead of just land access. This shift helped lead to the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Eventually, the Enclosure movement in England displaced many peasants. These people often moved to cities to become factory workers, known as the proletariat.

In Eastern Europe, the transition to modern farming happened much later. For example, serfdom in Russia was not abolished until 1861. Before this, serfs made up a huge portion of the population. At the end of the 18th century, serfs were 45 to 50 percent of the empire. By 1858, that number had decreased to 37.7 percent. After emancipation, peasants could buy and sell land. This allowed landless ex-peasants to move to urban areas.

German peasant life also had specific structures. In most of Germany, tenant farmers paid rents to noblemen. In Bavaria, monasteries once controlled 56 percent of the land until 1803. Peasants in these villages often belonged to a corporate body. They managed community resources and maintained public order. Within the family, a patriarch usually made all the major decisions.

They also supported village courts that handled minor offenses.

Different cultures use different terms for rural workers. In China, the traditional term for a farmer is nongfu. Some Western writers used the word "peasant" to describe Chinese farmers. This often implied that Chinese society was stagnant or underdeveloped.

In Latin America, the term campesino is used. While many campesinos once worked under the hacienda system without owning land, land reforms changed this. Many modern campesinos are now smallholders who own their own land. The Catholic Bishops of Paraguay have even defended their right to land.

Today, the word "peasant" carries complex meanings. It can be used as a pejorative to describe someone as unsophisticated or rude. However, it is also used as a non-pejorative collective noun for rural populations. The United Nations uses the term to protect human rights. In 2018, they adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. Additionally, the organization Via Campesina represents about 200 million farm-workers. They define themselves as an International Peasant's Movement.