How did people categorize each other in the middle ages, how did racism work?

Question

I'm interested in the european high middle ages, about the 12th-13th century. I'm trying to understand how people sorted each other. Nowadays, some overlapping categories people use would be: * citizenship * language * territory, from where someone is * ethnicity/race * nationality, which could be seen as the four above combined, depending on the nation in question * religion * social class * sexual identity In feudal systems you might have "whose your liege" as an additional category. The thing is, I think most of these would have worked very differently or no at all in medievial times: Citizenship makes no sense without a state, so is at most a city-thing. Language, territroy, I don't know, the big importance they get today is I think also because both are tied to nationality, which does not make sense in a medievial context. Ethnicity/race in the modern sense are, well, modern concepts, I don't know how they worked back then. Sexual identity also seems to be a recent invention (Focault: the sodomite was a sinner, the gay is a species). Leaves Religion (but almost everyone is catholic!), social class and 'whose your liege' as possible categories. So how did common people (not clergy, not nobles) sort each other, which of the areas I listed (or others I forgot) where most important? How did people react to travellers, merchants etc from afar?

Answer 1

. In the 11th and 12th centuries, most people across Europe were peasants or “velleins” who worked in the massive stretches of lands owned by the local lords. There is very little known about the detailed life of peasants in Europe because the lords and the clergy did not keep records of the peasants. The only semblances of early records were concerning the duties that the peasants owed their masters.

They were basically slaves to the lords.

Peasants were divided between slaves and serfs. The latter were freer but still toiled in their masters’ land. The slaves lacked most of the freedom enjoyed by the serfs such as having families. Majority of the peasants worked three days a week in their lord’s land but they would work longer during the harvest and plantation periods.

Those who were full time servants would work every day of the week and would get a break to attend Mass on Sundays. Peasants were forbidden from leaving the lord’s manor without seeking permission. The condition of serfdom was hereditary and one would be tied to his master unless he saved enough to purchase some land or if he married a free person. At the end of the 12th century, the ties that bound peasants to their masters began to loosen.