Elastyczność pogranicza społecznego. Chłopstwo i szlachta w Rzeczypospolitej przedrozbiorowej
Flexibility of the Social Borderline. Peasantry and Nobility in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Summary/Abstract: The article proposes a study of peasant-noble relations to explain the functioning of the society of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Attention has been paid to the flexible boundaries between social states. This phenomenon was considered in the context of the labour market, which was the axis of everyday life. The tension at the interface between social mobility and the organisation of human labour in a low-populated state caused disruption to the existing patriarchal order. The use of multiple case studies from different areas of the state over the long period of the Commonwealth helped to clarify interstate couplings that were not always clear. Religious and ethnic homogeneity, as well as the geographical origin of the majority of Polish peasants and nobility, influences the understanding of the postcolonial perspective and serfdom.

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