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.
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