Anneke van Baalen, HIDDEN MASCULINITY, Max Weber's historical sociology of bureaucracy. 1994
Chapter 6. Feudalism. Decentralization of patrimonialism into political domination by an hierarchy of
free men
103
4. Feudal mentality and education
In Weber's argument on the crucial differences between patrimonialism and feudalism the
mentality ('Gesinnung') fostered by these forms of domination plays a central role. At the end
of his chapter on 'Feudalism, Ständestaat and Patrimonialism', after having described the
ultimate victory of patrimonialism over feudalism, Weber conceptualizes the contrast
between the political and social ideologies of patriarchal patrimonialism and the very
different styles of life they create; in his view the structure of domination influenced the
general habits of the subjects through the 'ethos', 'die Art der Gesinnung', which it
established.
25
Medieval western feudalism shares with Japanese 'vasallic' feudalism
26
and Hellenic urban
feudalism a special status education which aimed at the inculcation of an ethos based on
status honor; in 'free' feudalism, however, the vassal's fealty became 'the center of a view of
life which perceives the most diverse social relations, to the Savior as well as the loved one,
from this vantage-point.' This led to a 'cult of the personal', which 'contrasts violently with all
impersonal and commercial relationships'.
27
The 'antagonism toward commercial rationality'
appears also to be rooted in feudalism in general: in the feudal army 'individual heroic
combat, not the discipline of a mass army, is decisive'; therefore the game still has a place in
the training for knightly military perfection. Weber sees the game as very special indeed:
'the game is a form of "training", which in its spontaneous and unbroken animal instinctiveness as yet transcend
any split between the "spiritual" and the "material", "body" and "soul", no matter how conventionally it is
sublimated.
'
28
The game found its greatest artistic perfection in classical Greece, first of all in Sparta; but
the dominant feudal stratum also 'maintained this kinship with an artistic style of life', with its
'need for "ostentation", glamour and imposing splendor', 'as an important power instrument
for the sake of maintaining one's own dominance through mass suggestion'. The feudal
strata did not 'view their existence functionally, as a means for serving a mission', since as a
positive status group they regarded their existence as sufficient in itself.
29
25
ES p. 1104, WG p. 650.
26
Which is not a complete feudatory system, see ES p. 1075, WG p. 629.
27
'But in contrast to Hellenic feudalism they made the vassal's fealty the center of a view of life which perceives
the most diverse social relations, to the Savior as well as the loved one, from this vantage-point. The feudal
consociation thus permeated the most important relationships with very personal bonds; their peculiarity also had
the effect of centering the feeling of knightly dignity upon the cult of the personal. This contrasts violently with all
impersonal and commercial relationships, which are bound to appear undignified and vulgar to the feudal ethic.'
28
'Therefore, one element finds a permanent place in training and general conduct, which, as a form of
developing qualities useful for life, belongs to the original energy household of men and animals, but is
increasingly eliminated by every rationalization of life - the g a m e. Under feudal conditions it is just as little a
"pastime" as in organic life, rather it is the natural form in which the psycho-physical capacities of the organism
are kept alive and supple', ES p. 1106, WG p. 650/1.
29
ES p. 1090, WG p. 639. (See also ES p. 1001/2, WG p. 578, summarized by the translators as 'excursus on
the cultivated man', discussed in Ch. 4,3 above and Ch. 9,2 below). This leads to a specific solidarity which 'is
based on a common education which inculcates knightly conventions, pride of status and a sense of honor.'}
Earlier Weber wrote on this kind of education: 'Wherever feudalism develops a status-oriented "knightly" stratum,
systematic preparation for a corresponding way of life emerges with all its consequences. Typically, certain a r t i
s t i c creations (in literature, music and the visual arts), which cannot be treated here, become a means of self-
glorification and establish and preserve the nimbus of the dominant stratum vis-à-vis the ruled. Thus "refinement"
is added to the at first purely military-gymnastic training; the result is that very complex type of "cultivation" which
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