Tiffany Chen, Melody Sue, Lucy Zhao
Per. 5, Team 2
At the beginning, the aristocratic nobles dominated the feudal system, but as the system crumbled and wealth became more closely correlated with political clout, the growing wealth of the union-like up-and-coming tradesmen middle class gave them growing influence in Medieval society.
Commerce was slow to emerge, beginning as a light-hearted and popular occurrence during community holidays, and expanding due to peasants’ self-sufficiency in making everyday goods. As they began selling their goods and opening up shop, trade grew and burgeoned into massive and regularly scheduled Farmer’s Market-esque events that became the center of the social life. Eventually, independent traders grew so large in numbers, and apprenticeships so popular amongst the young, that guilds emerged to protect and organize this new class of skilled tradesmen.
Most tradesmen paid the membership for craft and merchant guilds, because guilds were the path to increased social standing. The guilds had power through numbers, through skill, and through their bargaining ability. Like worker unions of the Progressive era, the guilds of the Medieval times, with their quality control and protection of tradesmen from competition, demanded and gained more rights and respect for their constituent tradesmen.
The middle class tradesmen’s honorable crafts subtly changed the distribution of power as they involved their art with religion and thus gained new respect and value in society; after all, the social hierarchy was thought to reflect Heaven’s hierarchy, so religiously valuable individuals gained social standing. For instance, many costly cathedrals were built during this time as a way to honor God. The time-consuming, intricate construction of these grand, Godly architectural masterpieces were entrusted to tradesmen who were involved with stonework and the like. Only the most talented masters could work on this building of God, and it often took them most of their lives to complete this masterpiece.
So just like the Greek and Romans treated art as beauty is the purpose and inherent character of art, because it was used to honor the Gods, and like the Anglo-Saxons honored bravery through poetry, the Medieval people heralded majestic stonework as a way to honor God and to remember the craftsmen who built it. However, the Medieval approach to beauty, art and honor was more practical and less philosophical, as the artwork and the master tradesmen’s handicraft became tangible cathedrals and obvious methods through which the guilds could better their social standing.
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ReplyDeleteTeam 2 nicely described all the ranks in the medieval society; from nobility to peasantry, team 2 closely examines the hierarchical standing in the community. While peasants usually serve masters for a various time, they do have a small piece of land on their own. The middle class, as the commerce began to grow, are composed of many gifted craftsmen, who often add religion into their arts and crafting. Much similar to the labor union in the progressive era, guilds are a place for the middle to lower classmen to seek for protections and help. Before trading was influential in the medieval society, politics determined a person’s ranking status. Many nobilities would participate in political discussions and together, form the top of the social structure. As the center is slightly shifted from politics to economics, craftsmen and merchants began to shine; they put their creativity and craftsmanship into their products that often contains religious symbols to honor the God. Like many other forms of art, the crafting indicates a way of how the medieval people approach beauty and elegance. Team 2’s detailed analysis and coherent paragraphs not only informed the readers about the medieval society, but they also display the preciousness of art and religion reflected by that era. If team 2 were to make the post even better, we would suggest that adding some examples of products and ways of trading that were used by merchants during that time, in order to create a more vivid image.
ReplyDeleteWylie Period 5 Team 7
Dan Qi, Kevyn Fox, Samudra Thio, Steven Li (switching out of the class)