Marginality and Otherness in Catalonia (14th-16th centuries)

Abstract

This contribution is part of a series of new reflections on themes that have already been widely dealt with by historiography, although new approaches are possible. Specifically a significant theoretical and conceptual effort has been made in this study regarding the categories of Marginality and the Otherness in Catalonia / the Crown of Aragon (14th-16th centuries), using as terms of comparison a series of cases from the European Occident. In this reflection I aim to approach a broad and ambitious subject from a multidimensional focus, to differentiate and re-think the diverse factors that make up Marginality, and Otherness as differentiated concepts, and indicate the reason for those differences. To this end I have examined Spanish and foreign scientific literature, as well as making critical use of existing published sources, data and information drawn from archival research, texts by the thinkers of the period and legal dispositions from the cities. This approach must be framed within the perspective of the methodology of historical anthropology and, in part, within current cultural history.