6.Weird Little Guys of the Anarchist Middle Ages

Lars Kjær (Northeastern University, London) joins us to discuss how he has been inspired by David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book, The Dawn of Everything. What happens when medieval history is interpreted not so much from the perspective of elites, but from the perspective of peasants and other commoners attempting to escape the power of their social betters? We talk about various forms of dissent – people who worshipped unauthorised saints, people who swore allegiance to the Queen of Fairy, or simply peasants who strategically grumbled their way out of disputes with their rulers. Can anarchist anthropologists like David Graeber or James C. Scott help us understand the “weird little guys” of the Middle Ages, that is to say, the inscrutable and sometimes eccentric peasants whose forms of protest now seem puzzling to us?

 

The Chronicles is produced by Kirsi Tilk of Tilk Sonics - kirsitilk.com

Music by Kirsi Tilk

Funded by Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond