The Ragusan „Maids-of-all-Work“

Autor(en)
Juliane Schiel
Abstrakt

This paper discusses bonded labor relations and their shifts by taking the example of Slavic migrant workers in late medieval Ragusa. Over a period of roughly 150 years, Ragusa shifted from a localised, endemic setting of labor exploitation to a commodified labor market with transregional implications. By evaluating notary deeds and legislative acts, the paper calls for an empirically grounded way of category formation and a careful reconstruction of the Ragusan grammar of social dependency. While labels and classification systems for unskilled Slavic migrants changed over time, they remained the “maids-of-all-work”, i.e. unspecialized laborforce, that could be taken into service for unspecified tasks whereever they were needed.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte
Journal
Journal of Global Slavery
Band
5
Seiten
139-169
Anzahl der Seiten
31
ISSN
2405-8351
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1163/2405836X-00502002
Publikationsdatum
06-2020
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
601008 Geschichtswissenschaft
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
History, Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/the-ragusan-maidsofallwork(387e777f-a09f-4ae0-aafc-2081a21550b5).html