The role of landuse and non-agricultural occupations for the design of village profiles (Hesse-Kassel 1737)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Werner Troßbach
• Subject Area: Economic and Social History
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 217049699

The hessian taxregisters of 1737 provide the database for a new approach to village history focussing on the diversity of landuse systems and village occupations. In a first step the data of the taxable village households have been arranged according to various parameters, i.e. legal status, land and livestock ownership, trade activity etc. The interdependencies between occupational orientations and landuse have been analysed on two levels, on the overall sample level and for each village apart, focussing e.g. the relationship of horse ownership and teamster activity, of weaver activity and land ownership, of day labourer status and draught animal owndership etc.In the next step statistical methods have been employed to detect common features suitable to provide a base for village typologies. On this level the single village provides the basic entity. Based on a variety of village types, special attention has again been paid to the interdependencies of different characteristics, e. g. how special patterns of land ownership developed in a typical village of linen weavers, which patterns of social inequality were typical of villages with an over-average number of teamsters or a significant share of day labourers. Accordingly, this change in perspective can lead to reconceptualizied visions of village history in general, resulting in specific village profiles, that can be understood as interaction results of environmental and infrastructural factors, as well as of agent-related activities.In the continuation period a more precise contextualization will be carried out on a broader basis of sources. Additionally a second time axis will be introduced to make social change visible. To further profile and possibly generalize the statistical findings, the database, as indicated in the inital proposal, should be extended to the region surrounding of city of Kassel.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Dana Cerman-Stefanová; Professor Dr. Holger Thomas Gräf; Professor Dr. Andreas Hedwig; Professor Dr. Manfred Jakubowski-Tiessen; Professor Dr. Michael Kopsidis; Professor Dr. Martin Ott; Professor Dr. Winfried Speitkamp; Professor Dr. Clemens Zimmermann