Summary
This doctoral thesis analyzes the process of rural modernization in Northwestern Iberia from an archaeological perspective, focusing on peasant domestic materiality. It is based on the premise that the built environment and domestic material culture constitute a fundamental record for understanding how peasant communities were transformed from the Ancien Régime to the present.The research is situated within the field of Historical Archaeology. Within this framework, the methodology is primarily archaeological and assigns a central role to material sources, while also being complemented by the review of documentary sources and the collection of oral testimonies. The combined and dialogical analysis of these sources makes it possible to reconstruct the trajectories of the places and lives studied.The core of the thesis is structured around five case studies carried out in Galicia and León: the site of Silvaescura (16th–19th c.); the analysis of domestic refuse pits associated with a peasant household in Terra de Montes (17th–20th c.); the biography of the house of Repil (1930s–1950s); the village of Rumiña, with particular attention to its occupation during the 20th and 21st c.; and the village of Torrestío, which is currently inhabited. Taken together, these case studies allow different moments and scales of peasant domestic life to be addressed.The results show that the peasant house constitutes a key element for analyzing transformations in rural ways of life over the last centuries. The study of domestic space makes it possible to identify material, socio-economic and symbolic changes, such as the loss of the house as a unit of production and consumption, the progressive homogenization of material culture, and processes of territorial dislocation. Likewise, the peripheral character of the contexts analyzed and their transformation through global-scale modernizing dynamics are highlighted, as is the central role of women in peasant domesticity and in the transmission of memory. Finally, the value of the house as a heritage element is underlined.Overall, the thesis demonstrates that rural modernization was a heterogeneous and non-linear process which, nevertheless, proved unstoppable and profoundly transformed peasant ways of life. In addition, it highlights the potential of historical archaeology to contribute to a critical reading of the recent past of the rural world.
Keywords
Historical Archaeology. Contemporary Archaeology. Modernization. Peasantry. Built environment. Rural heritage.