The Power of Peasant Consumers
The Power of Peasant Consumers
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USDThe long-held view of the peasantry as a passive social group has gradually been replaced by a positive narrative that stresses peasant agency in economic, social, and even political terms. Contributing to this shift, Luis Almenar Fernández explores the objects that peasants used to store, cook, and serve their food in late medieval Valencia. Drawing on a range of archival, visual, material, and literary evidence from c. 1280 to c. 1460, the book examines the materiality of food to shed light on the consumer behaviour of agriculturalists during pivotal economic, social, and material transformation. It builds on discussions about changes in living standards, consumption patterns, and material culture in pre-industrial European societies. The materiality of food improved significantly among Valencian peasants during this period. This phenomenon had widespread implications for the economy and underpinned the development of new industries, contributing to the economic growth of this prominent Mediterranean polity.
- Provides an interdisciplinary approach that combines economic and cultural analysis of material culture
- Uses the case of Valencian peasants to illuminate ongoing discussions and challenge existing international narratives on consumption, material culture, and living standards
- Reveals the richness of Mediterranean archival sources
Product details
October 2025Hardback
9781009602440
376 pages
229 × 152 mm
87 b/w illus. 2 maps 45 tables
Not yet published - available from October 2025
Table of Contents
- Money and measures
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1. Introduction
- Part I. Material Culture:
- 2. Peasant homes, meals, and times
- 3. Storage
- 4. Cuisine and cooking techniques
- 5. Eating and drinking
- Part II. Consumption:
- 6. Exploring inventories quantitatively
- 7. Specialisation and diversification
- 8. The revolution in semidurable goods
- 9. Regional traditions in the material culture of food
- 10. Peasant and 'non-peasant' consumption: the role of occupation, place of residence, and gender
- Part III. Standards of Living
- 11. Peasant incomes
- 12. Prices of food-related objects
- 13. Expenditure on consumption
- 14. Inequality and consumption
- Part IV. The Logic of Peasant Consumer Behaviour:
- 15. Emulation and assimilation
- 16. Conclusion.
