Societies in Scandinavia were divided into three social classes: noblemen, free farmers and dependants. The same classification can be applied to Estonia.
The majority of the society were free farmers who lived in farmsteads which consisted of 6-10 people - pererahvas (all folk who lived and worked on a farm, in modern Estonian pere stands for family). Larger and more populous settlements were forts and adjacent settlements where most probably a nobleman, his kin and military retinue lived. Real villages developed approximately only in the 10th century, in conditions of population growth which encouraged partitions of farmsteads into smaller households.
Noble families can be defined as those who possessed arable land (tied to a lineage rather than an individual), rented it to farmers or taxed landed farmers in exchange for military protection. Arms race, weapons and military retinue expressed power struggles between noble families but also allowed the nobles to tax the farmers. Moreover, younger sons of noblemen who did not inherit land engaged in trading.
Interestingly, there was not a distinctive class of craftsmen, although some of them, especially blacksmiths enjoyed a high esteem in society.
Slaves were managed and owned mostly by noble families. Due to lack of sources, little is know about the origin, number or legal status of slaves.
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