Chapter Unveiling a hidden subject: peasant agency in the Douro river basin (5th- 7th centuries)

Abstract

The peasantry formed the most numerous group in the vast course of history in its dialectical diversity and specificity. However, the peasants’ importance was not matched by an equal research effort from historians. Something especially true during any pre-capitalist context in which the absolute relevance of this social class is shaded by the historiographical fascination about the ruling classes of yore. Hence, the present paper aims to contribute for understanding the protagonism of the “hidden subject” that was the early medieval Iberian peasantry between the 5th and 7th centuries. This class is frequently seem as static or – at most – passive. To frame a clearer picture of such an elusive social group this text presents a regional analysis with the articulation of written and archaeological sources in order to capture the peasant agency in the process of struggle with the aristocratic powers. The main hypothesis is that the process of aristocratic weakening in the Douro river basin during the 5th century ensured greater autonomy for this region peasants and that between the 6th and 7th centuries there is a new onslaught of a renewed aristocracy articulated with the State Visigoth. There was, without a doubt, a partially successful aristocratic advance, however, I would like to emphasize precisely the resistance imposed by the peasantry in a long-lasting effort to preserve their living conditions.