Editing Feudalism (section)

=== Challenges to the feudal model ===
In 1974, the American historian [[Elizabeth A. R. Brown]]<ref name=ebrown>{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/1869563 |volume=79|issue=4 |pages=1063–1088 |last=Brown |first=Elizabeth A. R. |title=The Tyranny of a Construct: Feudalism and Historians of Medieval Europe |journal=[[The American Historical Review]] |date=October 1974 |jstor=1869563}}</ref> rejected the label ''feudalism'' as an anachronism that imparts a false sense of uniformity to the concept. Having noted the current use of many, often contradictory, definitions of ''feudalism'', she argued that the word is only a construct with no basis in medieval reality, an invention of modern historians read back "tyrannically" into the historical record. Supporters of Brown have suggested that the term should be expunged from history textbooks and lectures on medieval history entirely.<ref name=daileader/> In ''Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted'' (1994),<ref name=reynolds>{{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Susan |title=Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1994 |isbn=0-19-820648-8}}</ref> [[Susan Reynolds]] expanded upon Brown's original thesis. Although some contemporaries questioned Reynolds's methodology, other historians have supported it and her argument.<ref name=daileader/> Reynolds argues:
{{Blockquote|Too many models of feudalism used for comparisons, even by Marxists, are still either constructed on the 16th-century basis or incorporate what, in a Marxist view, must surely be superficial or irrelevant features from it. Even when one restricts oneself to Europe and to feudalism in its narrow sense it is extremely doubtful whether feudo-vassalic institutions formed a coherent bundle of institutions or concepts that were structurally separate from other institutions and concepts of the time.{{sfn|Reynolds|1994|p=11}}}}

The term ''feudal'' has also been applied to non-Western societies, in which institutions and attitudes similar to those of medieval Europe are perceived to have prevailed (see [[Examples of feudalism]]). Japan has been extensively studied in this regard.{{Sfn|Hall|1962|pages=15–51}} [[Karl Friday]] notes that in the 21st century historians of Japan rarely invoke feudalism; instead of looking at similarities, specialists attempting comparative analysis concentrate on fundamental differences.<ref>[[Karl Friday]], [https://www.academia.edu/download/71051487/j.1478-0542.2009.00664.x20211002-26720-9g3rf8.pdf "The Futile Paradigm: In Quest of Feudalism in Early Medieval Japan"],{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} ''History Compass'' 8.2 (2010): 179–196.</ref> Ultimately, critics say, the many ways the term ''feudalism'' has been used have deprived it of specific meaning, leading some historians and political theorists to reject it as a useful concept for understanding society.<ref name=daileader/>

Historian [[Richard Abels]] notes that "Western civilization and world civilization textbooks now shy away from the term 'feudalism'."<ref>Richard Abels, "The Historiography of a Construct: 'Feudalism' and the Medieval Historian." ''History Compass'' (2009) 7#3 pp: 1008–1031.</ref>