Concept in Definition ABC

The small group of houses and buildings that take place in rural areas is known by the name of village. A village is usually smaller than the village and tiny in comparison with the size of an average city. Within the village there are mostly houses for residence and housing as well as some others minor buildings related to the economic activities that take place in the place (stable, farm, mill, deposit, etc.).

One of the main characteristics of the village is that its inhabitants produce what they consume, limiting contacts with the outside world, either with neighboring villages or with towns or cities, almost to a minimum close. This is perhaps what makes the village not grow in size as it can happen with towns, cities or megalopolis current. At the same time, within the village, customary practices, cultural phenomena and hierarchical organization that shapes the daily life of its inhabitants, generally being very unique and particular.

Extremely common in Antiquity and

Middle Ages, the villages are today almost a picturesque phenomenon, very difficult to find. The village is considered the first and oldest form of community organization of the human being, having built the first in the prehistoric period Neolithic (the one in which man went from nomadism to sedentarism, dominating the farming and animal domestication). This form of social organization would not cease to be common until the first effects of the Industrial Revolution (18th century) took place, at which time large amounts of rural population he had to emigrate to the increasingly thriving urban centers.

Needless to say, the village establishes a deep and intimate relationship with the natural environment, consuming only the natural resources necessary, producing their raw materials through the work of nature and subsisting in the best possible way according to the climatic and space conditions.

Today, despite the fact that the village has lost a lot of place in the face of the advance of the cities, many groups aware of environmental damage, have returned to the rural roots and that is why in many countries you can find ecological and sustainable villages built on the basis of old villages or completely new.

Village Themes