Work vs. Employment vs. Occupation

The diet of the peasants was dominated by grain, wheat, oats, barley, and millet. A typical peasant meal consisted of thin vegetable soup made from peas, beans, or cabbage, eaten with bread. Vegetables and fresh fruit were eaten by the poor, vegetables would have been included in some form of stew, soup or pottage. Food items which came from the ground we're only being considered fit for the poor. Peasant lived near a body of water of some sort, they may have caught fish to supplement his diet, and peasants ate mostly what they could grow.The lower classes were healthier than the upper class due to their consumption of vitamin C, fiber, and calcium. Meat was a rare luxury for the poorer classes. Their meals typically featured bread, eggs, and dairy products.“Their diet also included freshwater and sea fish, such as salmon, trout, eel, pike, and sturgeon, and shellfish such as crabs, lobsters, oysters, cockels and mussels. For the poor, bread was the staple food and it would be eaten with butter, cheese, eggs, and pottage. (“Elizabethan Food”). (“Food and Drink”) & (“Elizabethan

These people were primarily of Anglo-Saxon descent meaning that while they were most likely Christian, they were relatively new to the religion and before then held very strong conservative pagan beliefs. Anglo-Saxons loved the idea of old objects, for example if a sword in the poem of Beowulf was good, then it was always old. This can also come in the form of bloodlines. If a family is old and can trace back their bloodline throughout the ages, then they are well respected. This is a very pagan belief (as Christianity could not endorse this due to it being relatively new itself), and showed that Anglo-Saxons knew that their bloodlines and the roots of their culture came from the Germanic warrior tribes of the east. “A secular Anglo-Saxon aristocrat, whose claims to prestige and authority depended in part on an ancient and therefore necessarily pagan lineage, would be much less inclined to ignore the achievements of his pagan ancestors than a monk cut off from his own family and culture” (Hill 200). The

A farmer usually had two crops; a spring and an autumn crop. The spring usually consisting of barley, vetches, oats, peas and beans, while fall was usually just wheat and rye. Each seed was used in way. The rye and wheat, besides being sold for cash, was used for bread. The barley was used for beer and the oats and hay were fed to the livestock.

A medieval manor was the home for most free and unfree European peasants. The amount of land on the manor varied from several thousand acres to as small as 120 acres. According to recently found evidence, a manor may have consisted of several villages, villages whose produce was split amongst several lords, or an isolated homestead. Land on the manor was split into two parts and the larger part was typically for the peasants. All peasants worked equally in cultivating the land which also meant any large harvests or disasters with the crops were also shared. The peasants used what is referred to as an “open field system”. This

The peasants’ unlike the wealthy ate food like a dark bread made out of rye grain. They also ate a kind of stew called pottage made from the peas, beans and onions that they grew in their gardens. Today some people also grow there own garden for food. Sweet

Early literature created the precedent for society today. Epic stories like “The Seafarer”, “The Wanderer”, “Beowulf”, and “The 13th Warrior” established a foundation for society that revolved over time. Being the world's earliest literatures, English had first established literary devices, and centralized ideas, that also reflected as history’s first documentations. Society’s artistic, religious and humanistic values stemmed from the Anglo- Saxon life style. The Anglo- Saxons came from German regions. They settled in Britain, and were established in 410 AD. Their rule ended in 1066 AD. The Anglo- Saxons had their own religious beliefs, and supernatural values. The Saxons were the first to establish ideas about heroism, leadership, evil, and

During this time the way people farmed was also being changed. New and efficient ways of farming were invented and introduced to other people. For centuries people had used the technique of strip-farming, which is a different kind of technique which is when farmers bought many scattered strips of land. Landowners came up with the idea to combine the strips into large fields called enclosures. This change of farming meant that they spent less time working that land, and they could collect much more money than they earned

The most effective method of work I would put into effect would be a reward and punishment system. A reward and punishment system is when a person or

The villages were self-sufficient (Cels 6). They produced their own food, clothing, and farming tools (Cels 6). Peasants grew crops in the fields, and “livestock grazed in meadows” (Cels 5). Along with growing food, they also made products for their families, their lord, and to sell to other towns (Cels 8). They farmed grains like oats, barley, and wheat, which were then made into flour to bake with (Jovinelly and Netelkos 12). The forests on the manor provided the people with wood, which was used for building and firewood, and acorns to feed pigs (Cels 5). Nobles on the manor hunted deer, bears, wolves and pigs (Cels 5). These animals, along with sheep, were used for food as well as wool (Jovinelly and Netelkos 12). Manors also had ponds for fish, and beehives for honey, which was used as a sweetener (Jovinelly and Netelkos 12). Medieval manors sustained themselves, and had all they needed on the

First is the difference between their language and the language now which is modern English. Anglo-Saxon language is the oldest known form of English language and is also called as Old English. Even though it is referred as old English, their language is far different from modern English and is closer to modern German. The distinction can be seen, for example, on the old English word haftling, to the modern English word prisoner. The similarities to modern German can be seen from the old English haftling, not changing and still being haftling now. Their rich language was

Finally, last but not least is the history of farming. Farming was a huge way of life for many people centuries ago. Farming was the men’s job. This is a way that families made money, by selling to markets or trading with others. It also was a way to know for sure that they would have food on the table or their family. The farmers had a large number of crops to watch over and maintain. They typically grew cash crops of tobacco and wheat, but also grew a variety of other crops as well such as corn, oats, cotton, flax, and hemp. On their farm they also had livestock to care for. Most farmers had dairy and oxen cattle, beef, poultry, sheep, horses, and

Peasants would have to raise sheep in order to make clothes out of cloth. And they use their hides as parchment. They were also grow pigs for their meat and towels for their milk to make cheese and butter, and chickens to provide eggs and me. They would have to do all these things by hand in order to survive (Cels, Marc 13). In order to survive they would have to grow their own crops. Farmers would use different systems in order to grow the most crops throughout the year. In some parts of England they used the, The 2 field system was when farmers would let crops grow in one field. The second field was to keep fallow. The fallow field was plowed every once in awhile. They would switch the fields every year in order to have the fallow field regain its nutrients. In the three field system which was more common, one field would be planted with wheat and sometimes rye in the autumn. The second field would be planted with oats, vetches or barley in the spring. The third field would be left fallow in order to have it regain its nutrients (Bennett, H. S. 77). A manor was a self sufficient community of land that was ruled by a

The prospect of agriculture changed dramatically over the industrial revolution. Many jobs that would have been done by hand would start being able to be done on mass by machines or animals. England was a vast portion farmland in the 1700s and 1800s, this meant that the more farming improved the more money England would have. In the 1700s farming was a skill and job of the lower classes of England but in the 1800s they started to become better paid and a respected life style. The most important people between aristocracy and gentry then started to own the land and countryside. New fertilisers and harvesting techniques were introduced resulting in increased productivity and prosperity. Despite the phenomenon of urbanisation and industrialisation

Peasants would normally sprawl out all over the countryside growing crops, but were normally vulnerable to raids from other countries or rebels, so they exchanged part of their crops and tribute for protection from a lord. The Lord, having gained food and currency from the villages, would stockpile and use some of the food, and sell the rest for more currency, currency that could fund new building projects such as an upgrade to or a new mead hall for his subjects. The lord would also have to pay his soldiers to keep from mutinying, and to remain loyal to him, he would also feed his armies with the food harvested from the peasants, and buy food with the tribute given to him. Mead halls were widely used, but the Anglo-Saxon utilized them the

Anglo-Saxon is a term to describe any Germanic people during the 5th century until the Norman Conquest. Anglo-Saxon, as discussed Is composed of 3 Germanic tribes; the Anglos, Saxons, and the Jutes. They are also known as the last people who settled in Britain. They started out invading with small number of people, then increased in number, then invaded different areas, and had several kingdoms which were constantly in war at each other.