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Men Without Masters: Marginal Society During the Pre-Industrial Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Bronislaw Geremek

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The interest shown in marginal groups is explained by a diversity of factors. On the threshold of the modern era appeared an abundant literature devoted to a description of the world of delinquency. More particularly, these were treatises on the mysteries of the forbidden quarters of the cities of the time and on the behavior and way of life of social groups living by swindling or fraud. This being drawn to the exotic and the unusual in society, which was not unrelated to an awakening of ethnological curiosity, was also seen in the flowering of a type of literature which could be called “picaresque.” It had already appeared in the last centuries of the Middle Ages, but it came into full bloom only in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Spanish picaresque novel, because of its literary brilliance and its wide acceptance by the reading public, left in the shade a multitude of similar works coming from other European countries, from the English “rogue pamphlets” to the “rogue” literature of Germany and Holland to the tales of Polish and Czech vagabonds. These literary works are closely related to treatises which claimed to be based on eye-witness accounts or which claimed to report authentic events. In reality, they were all taken from fiction and demand comparison with documentary evidence. But the abundance of this type of literature and the success it enjoyed also indicate an early awareness by modern society of the growing importance of social groups living in contradiction to the norms, manners and customs in force at the time.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 25 , Issue 98 , September 1977 , pp. 28 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 F. W. Chandler, The Literature of Roguery, Boston-New York, 1907; F. Kluge, Rotwelsch. Quellen und Wortschatz der Gaunersprache und der verwandten Geheimsprachen, I, Strasbourg, 1901; E. von Kraemer, Le type du faux mendiant dans les littératures romanes depuis le Moyen Age jusqu'au XVIIe siècle, Helsinki, 1944; P. Camporesi, Il libro dei vagabondi, Turin, 1973.

2 La novela picaresca española, ed. A. Valbuena Prat, Madrid, 1943; La novela picaresca española, ed. F. Rico, Barcelona, 1967; Romans picaresques espagnols, ed. M. Molho and J. F. Reille, Paris, 1968, Bibl. de la Pléiade. For a general outline cf. A. del Monte, Itinerario del romanzo picaresco spagnolo, Florence 1957.

3 Cf. the reports presented at the colloquy at Prato in 1974: J. P. Gutton, "Charité et assistance en Europe, XVIe - XVIIIe siècles"; B. Geremek, "La réforme de l'assistance publique au XVIe siècle"; A. W. Coats, "The Relief of Poverty, Attitudes to Labour and Economic Change in England, 1660-1782"; P. Mathias, "Wages, Consumption and Leisure in the Eighteenth Century."

4 F. M. Eden, The State of the Poor, London, 1793.

5 Cf. E. J. Hobsbawm, Labouring Men, London, 1964. Cf. especially essay No. 6.

6 L. Chevalier, Classes laborieuses, classes dangereuses à Paris pendant la première moitié du XIXe siècle, Paris, 1958.

7 Along with the pertinent observations of Stefan Czarnowski, "Kultura, szkic Powstawanie nowej kultury" (Culture, the birth of a new culture) in Dziela (Works), Vol. I, Warsaw, 1956, p. 75 et seq., should be mentioned a book by E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, London, 1963.

8 Such were in fact the indications given by Brecht to the actors. Cf. Dialog. 1957, No. 4.

9 S. Czarnowski, "Ludzie zbedni w sluzbie przemocy" (Superfluous Men in the Service of Violence), in Dziela (Works), Vol. II, pp. 186-193.

10 Especially that by N. Anderson, The Hobo, Chicago, 1923.

11 R. K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure, Glencoe, 1957 (the article dates from 1939); Contemporary Social Problems: An Introduction to the Sociology of Deviant Behavior and Social Disorganization, ed. by R. K. Merton and R. A. Nisbet, New York, 1961.

12 Cf. Revista latino-americana de sociologia, 1969, No. 2.

13 R. E. Park, Race and Culture, Glencoe. 1950, p. 345 et seq.; B. E. Hoselitz, "Main Concepts in the Analysis of the Social Implications of Technical Change" in Industrialization and Society, ed. by B. F. Hoselitz and W. E. Moore, Paris, 1966, p. 2. This work attributes to Park the origin of the idea of marginal society and the discovery of its significance.

14 We may cite here the work of a group of historians of Caen, published in the Annales de Normandie, as well as the collection of studies, "Crimes et criminalité en France, 17e-18e siècles," Paris, 1971 (Cahiers des Annales, 33).

15 We mention as an example Marginalité et criminalité à l'époque moderne, a special issue of the Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, XXI, July-September, 1974; H. Asseo, Marginalité et exclusion: le traitement administratif des Bohémiens, Paris, 1974; Délinquance et exclusion sociale, Mimeographed collection of reports presented at the meeting of modernist French historians in 1973).

16 N. Assodobraj, Poczatki klasy robotniczej. Problem rak roboczych w przemyśle polskim epoki stanislawowskiej (The beginnings of the working class. The problem of manpower in Polish industry at the time of Stanislas-Auguste Poniatowski), Warsaw, 1946; second edition, Warsaw, 1967.

17 N. Assodobraj treats this subject in the critical outline at the end of the second edition of her book. We may also mention the exhaustive study M. Frančič, Lužni w osiemnatowiecznym Krakowie (Men without masters in Kracow in the 18th century), Wroclaw, 1967.

18 S. Grodziski, "Ludzie lužni. Studium z historii państwa i prawa polskiego" (Men without masters: Contribution to the history and law of the Polish State), Kracow, 1961 (Zeszyty Naukowe UJ Rozprawy i studia, Vol. XXX.)

19 Especially A. Vexliard, Introduction à la sociologie du vagabondage, Paris, 1956; J. Baechler, Les phénomènes révolutionnaires, Paris, 1970.

20 Bibl. Nationale, Ms. Fr. 1148. In the expression folz we see a correspon dence with the Narrenschiff of Sebastian Brant.

21 S. Grodziski, op. cit., p. 14 and following.

22 A. Bröckner, Slownik etymologiczny jezyka polskiego (Etymological dic tionary of the Polish language), Warsaw, 1970, p. 304.

23 C. Paultre, De la répression de la mendicité et du vagabondage en France sous l'Ancien Régime, Paris, 1906.

24 M. Djakonov, Očerki iz istorii selskogo naselenija v Moskovskom gosu darstve, SPb 1898; I. D. Belajev, Krestjane na Rusi, Moscow, 1903; A. M. Pankrotova, "Najmity na Rusi v XVII v." in Akademiku B. D. Grekovu ko dnju semidesjatletija, Moscow, 1952.

25 S. Czarnowski, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 186.

26 Cf. R. K. Merton, op. cit., p. 130 ff.

27 E. Neyman, "Typy marginesowosci w spoleczństwach i ich rola w zmianie soplecznej" (Types of marginality in society and their role in social change), Studia Socjologiczne, 4/23, 1966, p. 36.

28 Cf. J. Labbens, La condition sous-prolétarienne, Paris, 1965; H. Mendras, "Pour une sociologie de la contresociété," Revue Française de Sociologie, VIII, 1967, p. 73.

29 R. K. Merton, op. cit., p. 153 ff. The author calls these attitudes "re treatism."

30 We recall Znaniecki's definition of strangers: "Strangers, with regard to the individual or community under study, are those, and only those, that the individual or the community consider as such." F. Znaniecki, "Studia nad antagonizmen do obcych" (Study of antagonism toward strangers), Przeglad Socjologiczny, I, p. 173.

31 J. Le Goff, "Métiers licites et métiers illicites dans l'Occident médiéval," Annales de L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes de Gand, Etudes Historiques, Tome V, 1963, p. 41 ff.

32 "Hérésies et sociétés dans l'Europe préindustrielle," presented by J. Le Goff, Paris, 1968.

33 Among recent works we may cite R. Mandrou, Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIIe siècle, Paris, 1968; A. D. J. Mac Farlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England, New York, 1970; K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, London, 1971; B. Baranowski, Kultura ludowa XVII-XVIII w. (Popular culture in the 17th and 18th centuries), Lódž, 1971, Chapter X.

34 M. Foucault, Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique, Paris, 1961.

35 R. Bastide, Sociologie des maladies mentales, Paris, 1965, p. 254: "a man is insane only with regard to a given society."

36 M. Handelsman, Prawo karne w statutach Kazimierza Wielkiego (Criminal law in the statutes of Casmir the Great), Warsaw, 1909, p. 67.

37 Gf. H. Passin, "Untouchability in the Far East," Monumenta Nipponica, XI, 1955, p. 27 ff.

38 G. Sjoberg, The Preindustrial City, Glencoe, 1960, p. 133 ff.

39 J. LeGoff, op. cit., p. 52; B. Geremek, Les Marginaux parisiens aux XIVe et XVe siècles, Paris, 1976, p. 238 ff.

40 Cf. G. Sjoberg, op. cit., p. 101.

41 The evolution of attitudes with regard to poverty and beggars is the theme of an abundant literature of which a broad coverage may be found in Etudes sur l'histoire de la pauvreté, Moyen Age - XVIe siècle, under the direction of M. Mollat, I-II, Paris, 1974; J. P. Gutton, La société et les pauvres en Europe, XVIe -XVIIIe siècles, Paris, 1974.

42 Cf. J. Pound, Poverty and Vagrancy. in Tudor England, London, 1971, p. 31, 100, Doc. 11.

43 Cf. B. Geremek, "Frycza Modrzewskiego program opieki nad ubogimi i europejskie spory wokól pauperyzmu," Polska w świecie (The program of Frycz Modrzewski concerning assistance to the poor and European controversies on poverty) in Poland in the World, Warsaw, 1972, p. 207 ff.

44 G. Espinas, La vie urbaine de Douai au Moyen Age, Paris, 1913, Vol. II, p. 976.

45 I. B. Scanarolo, De Visitatione carceratorum, Rome, 1675, p. 226.

46 A. Vexliard, "Vagabondages et structures sociales," Cahiers internationaux de sociologie, XXII, 1957, p. 97.

47 "Report on the legislation against vagrancy" in C. J. Ribton Turner, A History of Vagrants and Vagrancy and Beggars and Begging, London, 1887; A. L. Beier, "Vagrants and Social Order in Elizabethan England," Past and Present, No. 64, 1974, p. 3, ff. The author sees in the severity of the repression a consequence of the progressive disappearance of traditional paternalism from social conscience.

48 Research on vagrancy in the 16th and 17th centuries proves that single men dominated it. This increased the fear which they aroused; cf. P. A. Slack, "Vagrants and Vagrancy in England, 1598-1664," Ec. Hist. Review, sec. ser. XXVII, 1974, p. 366; A. L. Beier, op. cit., p. 6.

49 Cf. B. Geremek, "La popolazione marginale tra il Medioevo e l'era mo derna," in Agricoltura e sviluppo del capitalismo, Rome, 1968, p. 201 ff.

50 W. Kula, "Recherches comparatives sur la formation de la classe ouvrière," in Première Conférence Internationale de l'Histoire Economique. Contributions, Paris, 1960, p. 511 ff.

51 G. Villani, Cronaca, X, 164; C. de Roncière, "Pauvres et Pauvreté à Florence au XIVe siècle" in Etudes sur l'histoire de la pauvreté, Vol. II, p. 669 if.

52 E. Maschke, "Die Unterschichten der mittelalterlichen Städte Deutschlands," in Gesellschaftliche Unterschichten in den südwestdeutschen Städten, ed. by E. Maschke and J. Sydow, Stuttgart, 1967, p. 56; F. Hartung, "Die augsburger Zuschlagsteuer von 1575," Jahrbuch für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volk swirtschaft, 19, 1895, p. 96 ff.

53 B. Geremek, Les Marginaux, p. 208 ff.

54 Sudebniki, XV-XVI vekov, under the direction of B. D. Grekov, Moscow-Leningrad, 1952, p. 384, art. 64-71, p. 472 ff.; cf. also I. Prizov, Niščije na svjatoj Rusi, Kazan, 1913.

55 Sudebniki, op. cit., p. 174, 1550, p. 407, 1589; on the weekly distribution of alms by the monasteries, Akty socialno-ekonomičeskoj istorii severo-vosto čnoj Rusi, Vol. II, Moscow, 1958, No. 249, from circa 1480.

56 E. Faral, Les jongleurs en France au Moyen Age, Paris, 1910.

57 Patrologia latina, Vol. 172, col. 1148.

58 Akty socialno-ekonomiceskoj istorii, Vol. I, No. 393, 1470, N. 652, 1504; cf. L. V. Cerepnin, Obrazovanoje russkogo, centralizowannogo gosudarstva, Mos cow, 1960, p. 311 ff.

59 Akty socialno-ekonomi ċeskoj istorii, Vol. I, No. 649; Sudebniki, pp. 384, 472.

60 A. Brückner, op. cit., p. 494.

61 On banditry, in addition to the classic work of F. Braudel, La Méditer ranée et le monde méditerranéen à l'époque de Philippe II, Paris, 1966, Vol. II, p. 75 ff., cf. also J. Delumeau, Vie économique et sociale de Rome dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle, Paris, 1957, Vol. II, p. 259 ff.; J. Reglà Campistol, El bandolerismo catalan, Barcelona, 1962; P. Vilar, La Catalogne dans l'Espagne moderne, Paris, 1962, Vol. I, p. 579 ff.; E. Hobsbawm, The Bandits, London.

62 On brigandage in the Balkans, E. Hobsbawm, op. cit., passim; on that in the Carpathians, W. Ochmański, Zbójnictwo góralskie (The mountain brigands), Warsaw, 1950; A. Melicherćik, Juraj Janośik, Prague, 1956; Z. Piasecki, Byli chlopca, byli… Zbójnictwo karpackie - prawda historyczna, folklor i literatura polska (The brigands of the Carpathians - Polish history, folklore and literature), Kracow, 1973.

63 On the Cossacks cf. especially W. Tomkiewicz, Kozaczyzna ukrainna (The Cossacks of the Ukraine) Lvov, 1939; G. Stökl, Die Entstehung des Kosakentums, Munich, 1953; Z. Wójcik, Dzikie Pola w ogniu (Fields on Fire) Warsaw, 1961.

64 J. P. Gutton, op. cit., p. 24.

65 D. L. Pochilevié, "Plebejskij lud/leznyje/ v dereven Reći Pospolitoj," in Jež egodnik po agrarnoj istorii Vostoćnoj Jevropy: 1962, Minsk, 1964, p. 168.

66 M. Gongora, "Vagabondage et société pastorale en Amérique latine," Annales E.S.C., 21st year, p. 159 ff.

67 B. Geremek, "Problem sily roboczej w Prusach w pierwszej polowie XV w." (The problem of manpower in Prussia, in the first half of the 15th century), Przeglad Historyczny, XLVIII, 1957.

68 Volumina legum, Vol. I, p. 267.

69 Ibid., pp. 260, 267; cf. J. Gierowski, Kartki z rodowodu biedoty wiejskiej (A contribution to the genealogy of peasant poverty), Warsaw, 1951, p. 21 ff.

70 S. Sreniowski, Zbiegostwo chlop6w w dawnej Polsce (The flight of peasants from ancient Poland), p. 81.

71 Cf. M. A. Djakonov, op. cit., p. 109 ff.

72 S. Grodziski, op. cit., p. 63 ff.

73 B. D. Grekov, Chlopi na Rusi (Peasants in Russia), Vol. I, Warsaw, 1955, p. 164.

74 A. Gostomski, Gospodarstwo (Exploitation), prepared by S. Inglot, Wroclaw, 1951, p. 24.

75 Volumina legum, Vol. VI, p. 547 (1632); W. Dworzaczek "Dubrowolne" poddáństwo chlpów y Polsce, (The "voluntary" subjugation of the peasants in Poland), Warsaw, 1952, p. 37.

76 I. V. Stepanov, "Gulaścije-rabotnyje ludi na Povolže v XVII v.", Istori ćeskije Zapiski, 36, 1951, p. 142 ff.; in the mid-eighteenth century the number of gula śckje in these territories was estimated at almost one million, including sailors and fishermen.

77 Ibid., p. 147.

78 Ibid., p. 151.

79 The best presentation of this change is still that of Nina Assodobraj,. op. cit.

80 M. Franćić, op. cit., p. 116 ff. This author verifies that at the end of the 18th century they made up half the population of urban Kracow.

81 Cf. W. E. Moore, Man, Time and Society, New York, 1963.

82 W. E. Moore, Industrialization and Labour, Ithaca (New York), 1963.

83 Ibid., passim; idem, The Impact of Industry, New York, 1965, p. 38 ff.; W. Kula, op. cit., p. 519 ff.

84 This difference is rediscussed by E. Hobsbawm, "La marginalidad social en la historia de la industrializacion europea," Revista Latino-americana de Sociologia, 1969, No. 2, p. 237 ff.

85 R. U. Miller, "La théorie de la main-d'oeuvre excédentaire", Bulletin de l'Institut d'Etudes Sociales, 8, 1971, p. 241 ff.