Editing Feudalism (section)

== Definition ==
The adjective ''feudal'' was in use by at least 1405, and the noun ''feudalism'' was in use by the end of the 18th century,<ref name=ebo/> paralleling the French {{lang|fr|féodalité}}.

According to a classic definition by Ganshof,<ref name=ganshof/> ''feudalism'' describes a set of reciprocal legal and [[Medieval warfare|military obligations]] of the warrior nobility that revolved around the key concepts of [[lord]]s, [[vassal]]s and [[fief]]s,<ref name=ganshof/> though Ganshof himself noted that his treatment was only related to the "narrow, technical, legal sense of the word."

A broader definition, as described in Bloch's 1939 ''Feudal Society'',<ref name=bloch/> includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but the obligations of all three [[estates of the realm]]: the nobility, the [[clergy]], and those who lived off their labour, most directly the [[peasant]]ry, which was bound by a system of [[manorialism]]. This order is often referred to as a ''feudal society'', echoing Bloch's usage.

Outside its European context,<ref name=ebo/> the concept of feudalism can be extended to [[analogy|analogous]] social structures in other regions, most often in discussions of [[History of Japan#Feudal Japan|feudal Japan]] under the ''[[shogun]]s'', and sometimes in discussions of the [[Zagwe dynasty]] in [[Ethiopia in the Middle Ages|medieval Ethiopia]],<ref name="jessee1996">{{Cite web |last=Jessee |first=W. Scott |editor-last=Cowley |editor-first=Robert |editor2-last=Parker |editor2-first=Geoffrey |title=Feudalism |url=http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/mil/html/mh_017900_feudalism.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041112062036/http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/mil/html/mh_017900_feudalism.htm |archive-date=12 November 2004 |website=Reader's Companion to Military History |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Company]] |publication-place=New York |publication-date=1996}}</ref> which had some feudal characteristics (sometimes called "semifeudal").<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/semifeudal |title=Semifedual |work=Webster's Dictionary |access-date=8 October 2019 |quote="having some characteristics of feudalism"}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mWv1Xgn9poC&q=semifeudal+japan&pg=PT71 |title=Vietnam: A Global Studies Handbook |author=L. Shelton Woods |date=2002 |publisher= [[ABC-CLIO]] |isbn=9781576074169 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Some have taken the feudalism analogy further, seeing feudalism (or traces of it) in places as diverse as [[Spring and Autumn period]] China, [[ancient Egypt]], the [[Parthian Empire]], [[Indian feudalism|India until the Mughal dynasty]] and the [[Antebellum South]] and [[Jim Crow laws]] in the [[Southern United States|American South]].<ref name=jessee1996/>

The term ''feudalism'' has also been applied—often pejoratively—to non-Western societies where institutions and attitudes similar to those in [[Middle Ages|medieval]] Europe are perceived to prevail.<ref>Cf. for example: {{Cite news |issn=0312-6315 |last=McDonald |first=Hamish |title=Feudal Government Alive and Well in Tonga |work=[[Sydney Morning Herald]] |access-date=7 September 2008 |date=17 October 2007 |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/feudal-government-alive-and-well-in-tonga/2007/10/16/1192300767418.html }}</ref> Some historians and political theorists believe that the term ''feudalism'' has been deprived of specific meaning by the many ways it has been used, leading them to reject it as a useful concept for understanding society.<ref name=ebo/><ref name=ebrown/>

The applicability of the term feudalism has also been questioned in the context of some [[Central and Eastern Europe]]an countries, such as Poland and Lithuania, with scholars observing that the medieval political and economic structure of those countries bears some, but not all, resemblances to the Western European societies commonly described as feudal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dygo |first=Marian |date=2013 |title=Czy istniał feudalizm w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej w średniowieczu? |trans-title=Did feudalism exist in Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages? |url=http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.ojs-doi-10_12775_KH_2013_120_4_01 |journal=Kwartalnik Historyczny |language=PL |volume=120|issue=4 |page=667 |doi=10.12775/KH.2013.120.4.01 |issn=0023-5903 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Skwarczyński |first=P. |date=1956 |title=The Problem of Feudalism in Poland up to the Beginning of the 16th Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4204744 |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |volume=34 |issue=83 |pages=292–310 |jstor=4204744 |issn=0037-6795}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Backus |first=Oswald P. |date=1962 |title=The Problem of Feudalism in Lithuania, 1506-1548 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3000579 |journal=[[Slavic Review]] |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=639–659 |doi=10.2307/3000579 |jstor=3000579 |s2cid=163444810 |issn=0037-6779}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Davies |first=Norman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b912JnKpYTkC&q=Poland+feudalism+davies&pg=PA420 |title=God's Playground A History of Poland: Volume 1: The Origins to 1795 |date=2005 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-925339-5 |pages=165–166 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>