MAA – MEIE EMA, ILM – MEIE ISA. Märkmeid looduse rollist Liivimaa 14. sajandi ajaloos
OUR MOTHER IS THE EARTH, OUR FATHER IS THE WEATHER. Observations of the role of nature in Livonian 14th century history

Summary/Abstract: In historical narrative interaction between nature and society is a risky business to follow. Its effectiveness depends on several factors. First, whether the historian is ready and willing to see their mutual relations at all. No doubt, every creator of a historical narrative follows the traditions of a school he/she belongs to, which plays a decisive role in the approach towards the understanding of the interaction. The second problem is purely cognitive: how to turn a natural fact into a social fact: there is no straightforward procedure for that. Third, the rapid development of natural sciences puts the historian into a very inconvenient position because his/her training sets limits for the use of the results of the science. In the second half of the 20th century many new disciplines (historical geography, climatology, ecology etc.) and discourses (social vulnerability) came into being that enable to get a more accurate picture of the past. Interdisciplinary approach towards the past is most welcome but makes a historical narrative complicated to construct. It is easy for a historian to get lost in the jungle of theories that provide explanations of the causes of the interrelations between nature and society. Still one thing is quite clear: the farther back into the past a historian goes, the more dependent the societies were on nature. The article deals with the problems of the effect of the Great Famine (1315–1317) and the Black Death, which ravaged Europe since the middle of the 14th century, on Livonia. As a methodological tool principles of figurational sociology worked out by Norbert Elias were used. According to Elias, human beings are interdependent, and can only be understood as such. Their lives develop in, and are significantly shaped by, the social figurations they form with each other. These figurations are continually in flux and processes occurring in such figurations have dynamics of their own – dynamics in which individual motives and intentions play a part but which cannot possibly be reduced to those motives and intentions alone. The main goal of the article is to check out the possible effect of the Great Famine and the Black Death upon Livonian society. In other words: is it possible to trace the changes of social interdependence caused by the two devastating phenomena created by the nature. Although there is a great shortage of written sources reflecting the impact of famine and plague on the local society, all the elements common to Europe are present. In the case of the Great Famine deaths caused by famine, cannibalism, deviation from societal norms etc. can be verified. At the same time we cannot determine the vulnerability on the level of separate parts of social strata constituting the local society. It seems that the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order was less vulnerable. May be the Teutonic knights used the advantage in order to strengthen their position in the play for political leadership.

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