2016/05/26 by Susan Oosthuizen · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Medieval Architecture and Archaeology
paper · doi:10.1080/00438243.2016.1180261
openalex publication_date 2016/05/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/04
It is an archaeological commonplace that grazing across extensive pastures in many periods was shared, often over extended lengths of time, by kin-based communities who met there seasonally in large groups. Such explanations are richly implicit with models of social relations – there were large communities, they were made up of one or more kin groups, they shared pasture and they had regular assemblies. How did that general framework of social structure and social relations work in practice, particularly at the level of the individual landholding? This article explores the practical implications of a property rights approach to these questions, briefly illustrated in indicative examples drawn from the English fenlands across the longue durée. Its central contention is that the mutualities implied in the equitable, ‘horizontal’ governance of shared resources complemented and enriched ‘vertical’ hierarchies of power and status in complex societies of which they were both part.