This is a study of the village of Lournand near Cluny which lies at the heart of the little territory that is probably the best documented in the whole of the West in the late 10th and 11th centuries. In tracing the development of the community from antiquity to feudalism, the author creates a new model for the European context of feudalism challenging existing interpretations of medieval social and economic development. Originally published in French in 1989. Heralded by Georges Duby as a landmark in the study of feudalism.