The Village in Court
Arson, Infanticide, and Poaching in the Court Records of Upper Bavaria 1848–1910

In this book, first published in 1994, Schulte provides an interpretation of village life in rural Europe through a close study of court proceedings.

Regina Schulte (Author), Barrie Selman (Translated by)

9780521431866, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 April 1994

208 pages
23.6 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.424 kg

"This quick summary of Schulte's book by no means does justice to the manifold ways in which the author shows 'how peasant society worked'....a fine work."

The rural village of nineteenth century Europe was caught in a conflict between its traditional local culture and its integration into new state institutions and modern social structures. Local practices were turned into crimes; the social meaning of crime within the village culture was redefined by the introduction of bourgeois penal law and psychiatry. The language of the intruding agencies has created, through a wealth of written documentation, an image of village life for the outside world. Criminal investigations, however, had to be based on interrogations of the villagers themselves, and it was through this questioning process that their own views, language, and symbolic gestures went on record. In this book, first published in 1994, Schulte provides an interpretation of village power structures, gender relations, and generational rites of passage in Upper-Bavaria through a close examination of the proceedings before the penal courts of Upper-Bavaria for the three most important types of rural crime: arson, infanticide, and poaching.

Introduction
1. The break-up of the village
2. The peasant as seen by the middle class
3. The literature on rural relations
4. Crime as a medium of historical anthropology
5. Landscape with villages
Part I. Peasant Society and the Individual: 1. Fire in the village: i. The arsonist
ii. Work
iii. The village
iv. The families
2. The mad-doctor's gaze: i. From the social symptons to the physical
ii. Female arsonists and puberty
iii. Catharsis or disease?
Part II. The Status of Women and the Place of Children: 1. The bridal wagon
2. Silent births: i. Infanticides
ii. Time spent as a maid
iii. Relationships between unmarried farm servants
iv. 'With the angels'
v. Gossip
Part III. The Disputed Boundaries of the Village: 1. Poaching - economics, culture and sexuality: i. 'Nothing but shoot game'
ii. A trade on the edge of the village
iii. The village goes poaching
iv. The young men
v. The reality of fantasy
2. Domination in jeopardy: i. The provincial judge - attempts to mediate
ii. The 'good natured mountain folk' and the 'stormy times'
iii. Manhood and execution
iv. A fantasy of reconciliation
Conclusion: on the threshold between two worlds.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], European history [HBJD]