PT|EN
History of the Middle Ages (Economy and Society)
Courses
Cod: 31039
Department: DCSG
ECTS: 6
Scientific area: History
Total working hours: 156
Total contact time: 15

This course unit analyses the relationship that the medieval man established with
• his natural environment, both adapting himself and transforming it, and as much as possible, overcoming the difficulties put to him (economy);
• his peers, creating hierarchies of individuals within communities and establishing individual and collective rules of conduct and behaviour, in conformity with the position occupied (society).
The spatial and chronological limits which form this analysis are within the boundaries of continental Portugal, from the invasion of the so-called ‘barbarian peoples’ until the Centúria de Quatrocentos. Within this frame, it will be inevitable to approach the issue of ethnic and religious minorities (eg. Muslims and Jews) who comprised an active part of the Portuguese kingdom, contributing to coeval socio-economic (and others) development and structure.
This course unit will also touch upon political, institutional and cultural aspects (these are focused on separate course units), in order to broadly understand the structuring and conjectural realities of those times.

In the end, students are expected to be able
• to understand the elements of continuity and rupture in light of the socio-economic patterns of the preceding and subsequent periods;
• to recognise the specificities of the time and space studied;
• to integrate the themes of the course unit in a general perspective (synchronic and, especially, diachronic) of medieval Portugal.

1. The Germanic and Islamic presences
1.1 The Barbarian Kingdoms
1.2 The Islamic domination
2. Economy
2.1 Production
2.2 Commerce
2.3 Monetary circulation
3. Society
3.1 Social theorization
3.2 Laymen
3.3 Clergy
3.4 The ‘People’
3.5 The poor, marginals, and slaves
3.6 Religious minorities
3.7 Assistance and public health

TAVARES, Maria José Ferro - História de Portugal Medievo (Economia e Sociedade), Lisboa, Universidade Aberta, 1992.
Dicionário de História de Portuga, l (dir. de Joel Serrão), 6 vols., Porto, Livraria Figueirinhas, 1990 (reedition).
Nova História de Portugal, (dir. Joel Serrão e A.H. de Oliveira Marques), vol. III - Portugal em definição de fronteiras. Do condado portucalense à crise do século XIV, (coord. Maria Helena da Cruz Coelho, Armando Luís de Carvalho Homem), Lisboa, Presença, 1996.
Nova História de Portugal, (dir. Joel Serrão e A.H. de Oliveira Marques), vol. IV - Portugal na crise dos séculos XIV e XV, Lisboa, Presença, 1987.
História de Portugal, vol II - A Monarquia Feudal (1096-1480), (coords. José Mattoso, Armindo de Sousa), Lisboa, Círculo de Leitores, 1993.

Online learning with continuous supervision favoring asynchronous communication (Moodle platform).
Students have to perform the tasks requested by the teacher: essays, critical recensions, reports, protocols, etc. All works will be evaluated and/or classified.

Continuous assessment is privileged: 2 or 3 digital written documents (e-folios) during the semester (40%) and a presence-based final exam (p-folio) in the end of the semester (60%).
In due time, students can alternatively choose to perform one final presence-based exam (100%).

Students are required to have access to a computer with Internet connection and an e-mail address as well as to have computer literacy from the users' perspective.