Position in The Hierarchy
Peasants typically make up the majority of the agricultural labour-force in a pre-industrial society. The majority of the people in the Middle Ages were peasants. (Pre-industrial societies have diminished with the advent of industrialization.)
Though "peasant" is a word of loose application, once a market economy has taken root the term peasant proprietors is frequently used to describe the traditional rural population in countries where smallholders farm much of the land. It is sometimes used by people who consider themselves of higher class, more precisely the second and first Estate - these were the Nobility and the Clergy and right at the top was the monarch - as slang to refer pejoratively to those of poorer education who come from a lower income background.
Read more about this topic: Peasant
Famous quotes containing the words position and/or hierarchy:
“Will women find themselves in the same position they have always been? Or do we see liberation as solving the conditions of women in our society?... If we continue to shy away from this problem we will not be able to solve it after independence. But if we can say that our first priority is the emancipation of women, we will become free as members of an oppressed community.”
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