Out of the most significant research developments of the last years, aside from those concerning the contribution of archaeology and, in a general sense, the area of material civilization, including nutrition, the development of the history of mentalites and the use of new types of evidence, such as gestures and images, this book will concentrate on certain fields which extend the ideas of this book. Probably the most important is the interest in the problems of the family and of kinship. Alliance systems, the role of women, and problems of consanguinity have become central themes for the understanding of feudal society. In this perspective feudo-vassalic relations are increasingly posited in terms of artificial kinship. Similarly, the formation of the lordship, a basic unit lik the family, in feudal society, has yielded ground to fertile hypotheses concerning the process of organization of society in microcosms dominated by lords. The development of ideas about the middle ages and the deepening of researches and reflections have reinforced two fo the fundamental standpoints of this book. The middle ages as a period of violence, of harsh living conditions, dominated by the natural world was also a period of exceptional creativity and laid the foundations of the development of western civilization. On the other hand, even more than others, perhaps, the society of medieval west can only be understood if one shows how its material, social and political realities were penetrated by symbolism and the imaginary world.
