Charcoal Makers in Bohemia: From Privileged Craftsmen to Strange Forest Dwellers

0373887 - EÚ 2012 RIV GR eng C - Konferenční příspěvek (zahraniční konf.)
Woitsch, Jiří
Charcoal Makers in Bohemia: From Privileged Craftsmen to Strange Forest Dwellers.
Woodland Cultures in Time and Space tales from the past, messages for the future. Athens: Embryo Publications, 2009 - (Saratsi, E.; Bürgi, M.; Johann, E.; Kirby, K.; Watkins, C.), s. 80-88. ISBN 978-960-8002-53-1.
[Woodland Cultures in Time and Space: tales from the past, messages for the future. Scientific and Social Perspectives on Woodland Change. International Conference on Forest and Woodland History. Thessaloniki (GR), 03.09.2007-07.09.2007]
Grant CEP: GA AV ČR KJB900580701
Výzkumný záměr: CEZ:AV0Z90580513
Klíčová slova: charcoal making * Bohemia * forest history * social history
Kód oboru RIV: AC - Archeologie, antropologie, etnologie
http://www.embryopub.gr/index.php?target=products&product_id=1173&sl=EN

The paper focuses on an analysis of the changing social status of charcoal burners in Bohemia in the Middle Ages and early modern times. Given the extraordinary usefulness of charcoal to the society of those times, charcoal burners were among the privileged classes. Although these were people working manually far from human settlements, they enjoyed high esteem and even certain privileges reserved exclusively for the nobility. In Central Bohemia, charcoal burners even set up a professional organisation designed as a guild in the early 14th century. In the course of the subsequent centuries, the social standing of charcoal burners changed substantially. By the 16th century, they were regarded as rather an inferior workforce. Over time, charcoal burners became a marginalised class, which bore comparison with beggars and tramps. In the 19th century, charcoal burners were seen as forest pests, their social status was very low, and their economic position inferior.
Trvalý link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0206941