Comment by decimalenough
2 days ago
The series actually talks about this in detail, in particular the (incorrect) trope that medieval peasants worked a lot less than we do.
2 days ago
The series actually talks about this in detail, in particular the (incorrect) trope that medieval peasants worked a lot less than we do.
Yeah, and imagine how much more time could the medieval peasants have spent working if only they had electricity, machines and computers at their disposal.
The joys of progress.
Is that a trope?
Yes https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/medieval-peasant-only-work...
I think the origin of the trope is that the peasants sat around doing nothing during winter, when there was nothing to plant or harvest.
It's probably true that there was less work in the winter (although you still had all your maintenance tasks, e.g. repairs and preparing firewood), but this was compensated by much more intense labor in the spring and summer.
Overall, though, it makes no sense to say medieval peasants worked less than people do now, it's likely very comparable, and the variations would depend on the quality of your soil/irrigation and how much you were going to get taxed.
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Wtf? Ok I guess so. I would have never guessed.
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It is really great that Snopes was around in medieval times and can confirm or deny! /S
The thing is, no one knows what medieval peasants were doing, cos we weren't there. We have this or that piece of evidence, but evidence can be misinterpreted.
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