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Leading, directing and governing

For nineteenth-century peasantry, the hierarchy of living things stretched from earth to heaven, with human beings placed between domination and subordination. Power symbols were a reminder that the balance between prerogatives and duties began at home and from there extended to the locality and society as a whole. Managing a house, leading a flock or directing a meeting required technical skills, ritual knowledge and personal qualities.

Men

Power and authority are social and cultural representations which are embodied in numerous institutions and influence relationships between individuals. In preindustrial Europe, the ideological construction of hierarchies made authority sacred. The mechanisms of political legitimisation went hand-in-hand with the administrative organisation, both for religious beliefs and the perception of history and the environment. The metaphor of the good shepherd is an excellent example: the leader of the flock becomes a leader of men; his simple crook becomes the bishop's crosier, the sceptre and sign of customary law.