Exchange relations between lords and peasants

Abstract

The purposes of this article are, first, to present a theoretical discussion of peasant revolts that develops an exchange model of relations between lords and peasants and second, to use this discussion as a framework for a review of some of the work on peasant activity in eighteenth-century France. The argument, therefore, begins from social exchange; it does not privilege structures at the theoretical origin. Any analysis should specify three features of exchange: what is exchanged and the terms of trade, the potential kinds of coordinated activity present in the exchange (the relationship between hierarchy and reciprocity), and the meaning of the exchange relationship to its participants. These three features are interconnected so that, for example, specifying the kind of collective action is also to specify terms of trade and meaning.