classes in the ancient world

From: Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 12:30:17 +1200


Chris Lemens:

>I seem to recall from my economic history classes that, up until say 1600
>(RW) or so, upwards of 95% (and usually more like 99%) of humanity were
>scratch-the-earth peasant types of varying degrees of sophistication. The
>other 1-5% were composed of people like city folks, merchants, landowners,
>and, last and least, priestly types. Can anyone confirm this from a
>reliable source?

I think you are conflating between urban and rural populations rather than social classes. FWIW, the best figures I've seen on social classes comes from a synopsis of Lenski's class systems in Agrarian Empires (which was modelled upon Roman and Hellenistic societies).

UPPER CLASSES:

  1. The Ruler. 'nuff said.
  2. The Governing Class. This includes people like heriditary aristocracts and appointed bureacracts. They usually compose about 1-2% of the total population.
  3. Retainers. These serve the ruler and the governing class. The class contains soldiers, officials, servants, religious leaders and educators. They compose about 5% of the population. They lack individual power because they could be easily replaced.
  4. Merchants. Low prestige, no direct power, recruited from the landless. Not really significant in population terms.
  5. Priestly Class. Not really significant in population terms.

LOWER CLASS 6) Peasants. Bulk of society. Harshly taxed 30-70% of the crop.

    Vilely oppressed by the stinking rich etc. There can be social groupings within the peasants.

7) Artisans. 3-7% of the population. They are *not* middle class

    mainly because they were not productive enough to become wealthy. They generally had no power as a result unless their skills were difficult to acquire.   

8) Unclean. Those who perform noxious but necessary jobs like tanning.

9) Expendables. 5-10%(!) of the population. People whom society does

    not need nor want. They are likely to be forced of the land due to population pressure, are itenerant, have no normal family life and a high death rate. Most likely way to make a living is illicit activity at the fringes of society. An analysis I've seen said that people like the brigands/Peoples Front of Judea/Judean Peoples Front of 1st CE Judea were of this class.

Hmm. That last class sounds familiar somehow....

>Hmm. Let's assume that Carmanian and Jrusteli had the same (Brithini)
>linguistic roots. "El" means aether. According to Loren, "Mal" means lord.
> So "El" + "Mal" means light lord, which would also be a translation of
>Yu+El as in Y(u-)elm. Obviously the God Learners have been at work.

The Words 'Elmal' and 'Yelm' are not Brithini in origin.

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