So how exactly IS promising goods and services to a lord in exchange for land different from my leasing a house? I probably could do it as barter if I had to--but money is easier. Your definition of feudalism might stretch so far that it is meaningless.
No, my definition of feudalism is very specific. Its different from leasing a house because you don't enter into a relationship with your landlord; you do not swear to uphold and defend him from all others, promise to render upon him specific services when asked, in exchange for your land, his protection, and his support. Your landlord doesn't come by when you're unemployed and give you food (typically), nor does he act as your lawyer in court, or protect you from burglars. Instead you give him money and he lets you live in his house.
I'm sure there were "good" lords, just as there were "good" slave masters. But we're talking about the system of feudalism AS A WHOLE, aren't we? So the correct thing to do is to average coercion used over all lords, to produce an average coercion coefficient for the system as a whole. Or something like that.
Perhaps I haven't been clear in what I'm trying to say. Feudalism, as a "system" (though custom should be a better word) does not create a pyramid shaped society by its very existance; such a society must already exist. Whether lords could coerce others into feudal relationships, or were "good" or "bad" is irrelevant; they can be all these things WITHOUT feudalism. Which is my point, specifically wrt the original article. Which is why I dislike the term used in that fashion.
Especially when feudal relationships, specifically in the European Middle Ages, was less a pyramid and more a spider web of interlocking relationships, with the king at the top and everyone else trickling down to the bottom. Socially a knight may be below a count, but this doesn't mean a knight need listen to a foreign count (that is, one who is not his direct overlord). There was a phrase during the Middle Ages: "The man of my man is not my man."
So did you learn the correct definition of feudalism in school, or something? Let's have it verbatim, then... : )
Feudalism is a relationship, usually between a lord and his vassal, in which a specific service is exchanged for payment in kind, with mutual obligations between both parties
That's the short version. For the long version, read Carl Stephenson's _Medaeval Feudalism_.
Damon.
------------------------------------------------------------ Damon Agretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum." Now Building: Tamiya's M26 Pershing ------------------------------------------------------------
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