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What did the neighborhood community consist of? The Neighborhood Community of the Eastern Slavs: Education and Historical Significance

It is very difficult to date it because of the uneven development of primitive societies in different regions of the Earth. In the most developed regions, this stage began in the 8th-3rd millennium BC. e., and ended (in Egypt and Mesopotamia) in the 4th millennium BC. e. with the birth of the first states.

The tribal system was gradually replaced by new form organizations of society - a neighboring, or rural, territorial community, combining individual and communal land tenure. The neighboring community was made up of separate families, each of which had the right to a share of communal property and cultivated its own part of the arable land. Forests, rivers, lakes and pastures remained communal property. All together, the community members raised the virgin soil, cleared the forest, paved the way. Most scientists believe that the rural territorial community is a universal form of organization and is attested among all peoples who passed from the primitive system to civilization.

An important achievement of the era of the neighboring community was the discovery of metals. In the 4th-3rd millennium BC. e. stone tools began to be replaced by copper ones, then bronze ones, and from the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. - the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. - iron. People gradually switched to the widespread use of metals, which significantly increased labor productivity and made it possible to develop new lands more efficiently.

In the era of the neighborhood community, significant changes took place in all spheres of society. primitive tribes continued to improve agriculture and cattle breeding, pottery, weaving and other types of production.

The development of agriculture and cattle breeding, the emergence of crafts, the construction of large settlements indicate that man began to actively transform nature, create an artificial environment for his habitat.

Development complex types production - metallurgy, blacksmithing and pottery, weaving, etc. - required special knowledge and skills: blacksmiths, potters, weavers and other craftsmen began to appear in society. Between the masters and their fellow tribesmen, as well as between different tribes, the exchange of goods developed.

The development of metallurgy, blacksmithing, arable farming, specialized cattle breeding led to an increase in the role of male labor. Instead of the former equality of men and women, the power of men was established. In many societies, his power over a woman has acquired a harsh and even cruel character.

The growth of labor productivity led to the development of individual forms of activity: now one person (or one family) could do what several people (or a whole family) used to do. The individual family became the basic economic unit.

As a result of the growth of labor productivity, surpluses of products began to form, which gradually became the property of people. Thus, in primitive societies, an important factor appeared that contributed to the stratification of the community, and later to the formation of the state.

In the life of all the tribes of the era of the neighboring community great place occupied by the war - another source of enrichment. Boys were brought up primarily as warriors and trained in the use of weapons with early childhood. Family settlements were fortified with walls and ditches. Weapons have become more diverse.

The management of society in the era of the neighborhood community also changed. Meetings were formally preserved in the tribes, but they changed their character and turned into a meeting of male warriors: women were not allowed in the meetings. The leaders and elders, relying on the support of the noble and god-that part of the tribe, began to actually dictate their will to the whole society. Primitive democracy and equality of people were replaced by the power of tribal nobility. In relation to those fellow tribesmen who tried to oppose the establishment of the power of the leaders, they could use force.

The organization of the life of society also became more complex, people appeared - officials who controlled other people.Material from the site

In the era of the neighborhood community, there is a social and property stratification of the primitive community. Rich and prosperous families appear, among relatives and fellow tribesmen, nobility stands out from among the leaders, elders, priests and the most experienced and authoritative warriors who began to use the labor of impoverished members of the community. More warlike and populous tribes exacted tribute from their weak neighbors, threatening them with war and cruel reprisals. During military campaigns, captives were captured, who became slaves, who made up the most disenfranchised stratum of society.

Tribal unions

Separate tribes, fearing attacks from outside, united in powerful tribal unions headed by an authoritative leader. Such unions of tribes later served as a prototype of the future statehood. Often warlike unions of tribes organized military campaigns, smashed other tribes, seized rich booty, making robbery their constant trade. In the 7th-6th millennium BC. e. in the Middle East, the first proto-cities appear - Chatal-Guyuk, Jericho, Jarmo. These were well-fortified, walled settlements of farmers.

neighborhood community- these are several tribal communities (families) living in the same area. Each of these families has its own head. And each family manages its own economy, uses the produced product at its own discretion. Sometimes the neighboring community is also called rural, territorial. The fact is that its members usually lived in the same village.

The tribal community and the neighboring community are two successive stages in the development of society. Transfer from tribal community to the neighbor became an inevitable and natural stage in the ancient peoples. And there were reasons for this:

The nomadic way of life began to change to a sedentary one. Agriculture became not slash-and-burn, but arable. The tools for cultivating the land became more sophisticated, and this, in turn, dramatically increased labor productivity. The emergence of social stratification and inequality among the population.

Thus, there was a gradual disintegration of tribal relations, which was replaced by family ones. Common property began to fade into the background, and private property came to the fore. However, for a long time they continued to exist in parallel: forests and reservoirs were common, and cattle, dwellings, tools, plots of land were individual goods. Now every person began to strive to do his own thing, earning them a living. This, of course, required the maximum unification of people so that the neighboring community continued to exist.

Differences between the neighboring community and the tribal

What is the difference between a tribal community and a neighboring one?

First, by the fact that in the first prerequisite there were blood ties between people. This was not the case in the neighboring community. Secondly, the neighboring community consisted of several families. Moreover, each of the families owned their own property. Thirdly, joint work, which existed in the tribal community, was forgotten. Now each family took care of its own plot. Fourthly, the so-called social stratification appeared in the neighboring community. More than powerful people, classes were formed.

The person in the neighboring community became freer and more independent. But, on the other hand, he lost the powerful support that was in the tribal community.

When we talk about how the neighboring community differs from the tribal one, it is necessary to note one very important fact. The neighboring community had a great advantage over the tribal community: it became not just a social, but
socio-economic organization. She gave a powerful impetus to the development private property and economic relations.

Neighborhood community among the Eastern Slavs

At Eastern Slavs the final transition to the neighboring community occurred in the seventh century (in some sources it is called "verv"). And this kind social organization lasted long enough. The neighboring community did not allow the peasants to go bankrupt; mutual responsibility: the richer rescued the poor. Also in such a community, the wealthy peasants always had to be guided by their neighbors. That is, still somehow restrained social inequality, though it progressed naturally. characteristic feature for the neighboring community of Slavs there was a circular responsibility for committed misconduct, crimes. This also applied to military service.

Finally

Neighborhood community and tribal community are varieties social structure that existed at one time in every nation. Over time, there was a gradual transition to the class system, to private property, to social stratification. These events were inevitable. Therefore, communities have gone down in history and today are found only in some remote regions.

With all the huge variety of specific historical forms and variants of the neighboring community, it also went through certain stages, generally coinciding with the stages social evolution. K. Marx distinguished 3 main forms (stages, stages) of the decomposition of the initial unity of the community and the separation of the family-individual economy: Asian, ancient, German. The listed stages of the community were characterized by the dualism of collective and private principles, primarily by the dualism of collective and individual agriculture, but the ratio of these principles in them was different.

The Asian stage of the community was essentially a transformed natural community that dominated the primitive stage historical development. It was based on common ownership of land. The allotment of an individual family represented an integral part of the community. This kind of community organization relied on the large share of collective labor, the combination of crafts and agriculture within the community, the weakness or lack of division of labor between different communities.

The ancient stage, which represented the next stage in the decomposition of the original unity of the community and the separation of the family-individual economy and private property, assumed such an organization in which membership in the community continued to be a prerequisite for the appropriation of land, but each member of the community had already become a private owner of the cultivated plot. Common property used for general needs as state property is here separated from private property. The guarantee of the preservation of the ancient community was the equality of its free citizens, who independently ensured their existence.

The German community was a further step in the isolation of the families that made up the community, in strengthening the family-individual peasant economy as the main production unit. In the German community, collective property is only an addition to the property of individual householders. If in the ancient community the existence of an individual as a private owner was due to his membership in the community (polis, state), then in the Germanic form, on the contrary, the existence of the community itself is due to the needs of the family-individual economy.

Each of the stages of the neighboring community is represented by a variety of modifications. The natural-geographical and historical environment in which the community organizations were located, the nature of economic activity, as well as ethnic components left their mark on the development and specific forms of community organizations. Features generated by the need for large collective work(irrigation, etc.), differed, for example, in the community of eastern despotisms. dominance common property land here was realized through the property of the supreme community in the person of the state, the despot; individual communities acted only as hereditary owners of cultivated land.

The caste community represented a peculiar form of the early neighborhood community. Its specificity stemmed from a special type of social division of labor, closed within the framework of a rural community, moving not on a commodity, but on a natural exchange of products and mutual activity. Professional differences generated by this form of social division of labor are socially fixed in caste differences. Thus, the patriarchal nature and conservatism inherent in the community sharply increased, strengthening the autarkism of the community, serious obstacles were created in the way of the development of urban crafts and commodity exchange.

The nomadic community actually does not go beyond the initial stage of the decomposition of primitive collectivism and the transformation of the neighboring community. The nature of production (the need for collective grazing and protection of herds, seasonal redistribution of pastures, tribal mutual assistance in case of loss of livestock, etc.). natural Disasters) here is such that it determines the functioning of each individual or family (large or small) only as a member of a collective (usually organized in a military way). Nomadic area occupied by a separate economic unit - component common land property of the tribe

The communal organizations of the Germanic tribes approached the initial stage of the formation of the neighboring community by the time they conquered the Western Roman Empire (this stage of the evolution of the community is often referred to as "agricultural" and is considered as one of the types of communities). According to many researchers, the East Slavic verv belonged to the same stage on the eve of the formation Kievan Rus and on initial stage its existence (sometimes the rope is identified either with big family, or with a rural community such as the German mark).

The last stage of the neighborhood community falls on the period of domination of feudal relations. With the triumph of large-scale agriculture, the commune has been transformed from a free to an organization of direct producers, dependent on the ruling class and its state, used for the purpose of their exploitation. However, its orders and institutions continued to operate within the feudal estate as a necessary addition to the peasants' small-scale economy, ensuring its normal functioning. Even the feudal lord's own household was forced to obey the routine of the village community. With the help of the community as a community of small producers, virgin soil was raised, forests were cleared, roads were laid, irrigation and reclamation facilities were erected, bridges, mills, military fortifications, castles, religious buildings, etc. were built.

The community played a positive role in the transition to the three-field system and the regulation of this farming system. . The existence of the community as an organization of direct producers - the peasants - was enshrined in customary (sometimes in written) law. Despite the progressive development of private property relations and property inequality, the neighboring community retained its democratic nature. She played a big role in protecting her members from the onslaught of the feudal lords. The community persisted throughout the Middle Ages in a heavy continuous struggle with the landowning nobility.

One of the variants of the neighboring community was the Russian medieval community. The relative abundance of land did not require the introduction of such numerous servitudes that limited the individual land use of peasant families. This was facilitated by the small size of the settlements. For the same reasons, the almenda (very vast in territory) was used collectively to a much lesser extent. But in the field of self-government, the community-volost had much greater rights. The distribution of land and the regulation of their use, the layout, the election of rural authorities (headmen, and later volost elders), the collection of funds for worldly expenses, the organization of mutual assistance, the resolution of civil and petty criminal cases were the competence of peasant communities. The volost, along with the feudal estate and patrimony, was a territorial-administrative cell, part of the state organism. The elected volost authorities acted at the same time as representatives of the state administration in its lower level.

The low level of productive forces in the management of the economy required huge labor costs. Labor-intensive work that had to be carried out within strictly defined deadlines could only be performed by a large team; it was also his task to oversee the correct distribution and use of land. Therefore, a big role in life old Russian village the community acquired peace, rope (from the word "rope", which was used to measure the land during divisions). Storage of things in the suburbs: inexpensive temporary storage of things topselfstorage.ru.

By the time the state was formed among the Eastern Slavs, the tribal community was replaced by a territorial, or neighboring, community. The community members were now united, first of all, not by kinship, but by a common territory and economic life. Each such community owned a certain territory on which several families lived. All possessions of the community were divided into public and private. The house, household land, livestock, inventory were the personal property of each community member. In common use were arable land, meadows, forests, reservoirs, fishing grounds. Arable land and mowing were to be divided between families.

As a result of the transfer by the princes of the right to own land to the feudal lords, part of the communities fell under their authority. (The feud is a hereditary possession granted by the prince-senior to his vassal, who is obliged to bear the court for this, military service. The feudal lord was the owner of the feud, the landowner who exploited the peasants dependent on him.) Another way of subordinating the neighboring communities to the feudal lords was the capture of them by combatants and princes. But most often, the old tribal nobility, subjugating the community members, turned into boyars-patrimonials.

Communities that did not fall under the rule of the feudal lords were obliged to pay taxes to the state, which in relation to these communities acted both as the supreme authority and as a feudal lord.

Peasant farms and farms of feudal lords had a natural character. Both those and others sought to provide for themselves at the expense of internal resources and had not yet worked for the market. However, the feudal economy could not live completely without a market. With the appearance of surpluses, it became possible to exchange agricultural products for handicraft goods; cities began to take shape as centers of crafts, trade and exchange, and at the same time as strongholds of the power of the feudal lords and defense against external enemies.

The city, as a rule, was built on a hill, at the confluence of two rivers, as this provided a reliable defense against enemy attacks. central part The city, protected by a rampart, around which a fortress wall was erected, was called the Kremlin, Krom or Detinets. There were palaces of princes, courtyards of the largest feudal lords, temples, and later monasteries. From two sides the Kremlin was protected by a natural water barrier. From the side of the base of the Kremlin triangle, they dug a moat filled with water. Bargaining was located behind the moat under the protection of the fortress walls. The settlements of artisans adjoined the Kremlin. The handicraft part of the city was called posad, and its individual districts, inhabited, as a rule, by artisans of a certain specialty, settlements,

In most cases, cities were built on trade routes, such as the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" or the Volga trade route, which connected Russia with the countries of the East. Communication with Western Europe supported also on land roads.

The exact dates of the founding of ancient cities are unknown, but many of them existed at the time of the first mention in the annals. For example, Kyiv (the legendary chronicle evidence of its founding dates back to the end of the 5th-6th centuries), Novgorod, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl South, Smolensk, Suzdal, Murom, etc. According to historians, in the 9th century. in Russia there were at least 24 large cities that had fortifications.

At the head of the East Slavic tribal unions were the princes of the tribal nobility and the former tribal elite - "deliberate people", " the best men". The most important issues of life were decided at people's meetings, veche gatherings.

There was a militia ("regiment", "thousand", divided into "hundreds"). At the head of them were the thousand, sotsky. special military organization was a squad. According to archaeological data and Byzantine sources, East Slavic squads appeared already in the 6th-7th centuries. The druzhina was divided into the eldest, from which ambassadors and princely administrators came out, who had their own land, and the youngest, who lived with the prince and served his court and household. The warriors, on behalf of the prince, collected tribute from the conquered tribes. Such campaigns for the collection of tribute were called "polyudye". The collection of tribute usually took place in November-April and continued until the spring opening of the rivers, when the princes returned to Kyiv. The unit of tribute was smoke (peasant yard) or land area cultivated peasant yard(ralo, plow).

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Considering primitive society, social management (power) and normative regulation in it, different researchers adhere to different concepts on this issue.

Power in primitive society was not homogeneous. At the head of the family-clan group was the father-patriarch, the eldest among the younger relatives of his generation and subsequent generations. The head of the family group is not yet the owner, not the owner of all its property, which is still considered common, collective. But due to his position as a senior and responsible leader of the economy and life of the group, he acquires the rights of a manager. It is his authoritarian decision that determines to whom and how much to allocate for consumption and what to leave as a reserve, for accumulation, etc. He also determines how to dispose of the surplus, the use of which is closely related to the relationship in the community as a whole. The fact is that the family unit, being part of the community, occupies a certain place in it, and this place, in turn, depends on a number of factors, objective and subjective.

The problem of resources in the community on early stage its existence is usually not worth it - there is enough land for everyone, as well as other lands. True, something depends on the distribution of plots, but this distribution is made taking into account social justice, not rarely by lot. Another thing is the subjective factors, which manifested themselves so tangibly in the local group and, perhaps, even more noticeable in the community, although in a slightly different way. Some groups are more numerous and more efficient than others; some patriarchs are smarter and more experienced than others. All this affects the results: some groups are larger, more prosperous, others are weaker. The less fortunate pay the price that their groups become even smaller, as they do not get or get fewer women- hence, fewer children. In short, inequality inevitably arises between groups and households. It is not that some are full, others are hungry, because the mechanism of reciprocal exchange functions reliably in the community, which plays the role of insurance.

There are always several higher prestigious positions in the community (elder, members of the council), the possession of which not only increases the rank and status, the applicants who solicit them, mainly from the heads of family groups, must either acquire considerable prestige in approximately the same way as it was done in local groups, i.e. through generous distributions of surplus food. But if in a local group the applicant gave away what he himself had obtained, now the head of the group could distribute what was obtained by the labor of the entire group, whose property he had the right to dispose of. Thus, the elder had the right to dispose of the resources of the community at his own discretion, and this, in turn, indicates the great authority of the elder, and this is already an indicator of the manifestation of power.

Speaking about the social structure, power and management in a primitive society, it is necessary to keep in mind mainly the period of a mature primitive society, because during the period of disintegration, the primitive communal system and its inherent power and management undergo certain changes.

For social structure Mature primitive society is characterized by two main forms of association of people - clan and tribe. Almost all the peoples of the world have passed through these forms, in connection with which the primitive communal system is often called the tribal organization of society.

The clan (clan community) is historically the first form of public association of people. It was a family-production union based on consanguinity or supposed kinship, collective labor, joint consumption, common property, and social equality. Sometimes the genus is identified with the family. However, this is not quite true. The clan was not a family in its modern sense. A clan is precisely a union, an association of people connected by family ties, although in certain sense A genus can also be called a family.

Another important form of public association primitive people was a tribe. A tribe is a larger and later social formation that arises with the development of primitive society and an increase in the number of tribal communities. A tribe is a union of tribal communities based again on kinship ties, which has its own territory, name, language, common religious and everyday rituals. The unification of tribal communities into tribes was caused by various circumstances, including such as joint hunting for large animals, repelling attacks by enemies, attacks on other tribes, etc. .

In addition to clans and tribes, in primitive society there are also such forms of association of people as phratries and unions of tribes. Phratries (brotherhoods) are either artificial associations of several related clans, or the original branched clans. They were intermediate form between clan and tribe and did not take place among all, but only among some peoples (for example, among the Greeks). Unions of tribes are associations that arose among many peoples, but already in the period of the decomposition of the primitive communal system. They were created either for waging wars or for protection from external enemies. According to some modern researchers, it was from the unions of tribes that the early states developed.

Clans, phratries, tribes, tribal unions, being various forms of public association of primitive people, at the same time differed little from each other. Each of them is only a larger one, and therefore more complex shape compared to the previous one. But they were all the same type of associations of people, based on blood or supposed relationship.

Consider how Marx K. and Engels F. imagined power and control in the period of a mature primitive society.

Power as the ability and ability to exert a certain influence on the activities and behavior of people using any means (authority, will, coercion, violence, etc.) is inherent in any society. It arises with him and is his indispensable attribute. Power gives society organization, manageability and order. Public power is public power, although public power often means only state power, which is not entirely correct. Management is closely connected with public power, which is a way of exercising power, putting it into practice. To manage means to lead, to dispose of someone or something.

The public power of primitive society, which, in contrast to state power, is often called potestary (from the Latin "potestas" - power, power), is inherent following features. Firstly, she was not cut off from society and did not stand above it. It was carried out either by the society itself, or by persons chosen by it, who did not have any privileges and could at any moment be recalled and replaced by others. This government did not have any special administrative apparatus, any special category of managers that exists in any state. Secondly, the public power of primitive society relied, as a rule, on public opinion and the authority of those who exercised it. Coercion, if it took place, came from the whole society - clan, tribe, etc. - and any special coercive bodies in the form of an army, police, courts, etc., which again exist in any state , was not here either.

In the tribal community as the primary form of association of people, power, and with it management, looked as follows. The main body of both power and administration was, as is commonly believed, the tribal assembly, which consisted of all adult members of the clan. It solved everything critical issues tribal community life. To solve current, everyday issues, it chose an elder or leader. The elder or leader was elected from among the most authoritative and respected members of the clan. He did not have any privileges compared to other members of the family. Like everyone else, he took part in production activities and, like everyone else, received his share. His power rested solely on his authority and respect for him from other members of the family. At the same time, he could at any time be removed from his post by the tribal assembly and replaced by another. In addition to the elder or leader, the tribal assembly elected a military leader (commander) for the period of military campaigns and some other "officials" - priests, shamans, sorcerers, etc., who also did not have any privileges.

In the tribe, the organization of power and administration was approximately the same as in the tribal community. The main body of power and control here, as a rule, was the council of elders (leaders), although along with it there could also be a people's assembly (tribal assembly). The council of elders included elders, leaders, military leaders and other representatives of the clans that make up the tribe. The Council of Elders decided all the main issues of the life of the tribe with the broad participation of the people. To resolve current issues, as well as during military campaigns, the leader of the tribe was elected, whose position practically did not differ from that of the elder or leader of the clan. Like the elder, the leader of the tribe did not have any privileges and was considered only the first among equals.

The organization of power and administration in the phratries and tribal unions was similar. Just as in clans and tribes, there are people's assemblies, councils of elders, councils of leaders, military leaders and other bodies that are the personification of the so-called primitive democracy. No special apparatus of control or coercion, as well as power cut off from society, yet exists here. All this begins to appear only with the disintegration of the primitive communal system.

Thus, from the point of view of its structure, primitive society was a fairly simple organization of people's life, based on family ties, collective labor, public property and social equality of all its members. Power in this society was truly folk character and was built on the principles of self-government. There was no special administrative apparatus that exists in any state, since all issues of public life were decided by the society itself. There was also no special apparatus of coercion in the form of courts, army, police, etc., which is also an attribute of any state. Coercion, if there was a need for it (for example, expulsion from a clan), came only from society (clan, tribe, etc.) and no one else. Speaking modern language, the society itself was both a parliament, and a government, and a court.

The features of the power of the tribal community are as follows:

  • 1. Power wore public character, came from the whole society as a whole (this was manifested in the fact that all important matters were decided by the general meeting of the clan);
  • 2. Power was built on the principle of consanguinity, that is, it extended to all members of the clan, regardless of their location;
  • 3. There was no special apparatus of control and coercion (power functions were performed as an honorary duty, elders and leaders were not exempted from productive labor, but simultaneously performed both managerial and production functions - therefore, power structures were not separated from society);
  • 4. Neither the social nor the economic status of the applicant influenced the occupation of any positions (leader, elder), their power was based solely on personal qualities: authority, wisdom, courage, experience, respect for fellow tribesmen;
  • 5. The performance of managerial functions did not give any privileges;
  • 6. Social regulation was carried out with the help of special means, the so-called. mononorm.


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