COMMUNITY ACTION AND PLEBEIAN CULTURE IN RURAL SPAIN DURING THE OLD REGIME

Abstract

This article analyses plebeian protests, their forms of expression, impacts, consequences and trends from a long-term historical perspective. Frequently these constituted reactive actions against usurpations which had previously been produced by powerful locals or social factions that did not respect community customs or rights to make use of natural resources. Sometimes, these so-called “usurpations” were legitimised by royal privileges given to entrepreneurs who made use of such resources for their own benefit or for the benefit of the Crown. Reactions against these (illicit) practices actually formed varieties of plebeian political participation in the debate about how to harness use reserves and resources. These conflicts expressed ethical community values which gave legitimacy to riots, disturbances, forest fires or various forms of insubordination and poaching. Thus plebeian culture, which flourished in rural societies of the Old Regime, coordinated forms of social discipline from the bottom up.