A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city. Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in Beirut, Lebanon. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape ('dispersed settlement')
Historically, villages were the usual form of community for societies that practise subsistence agriculture, and also for some non-agricultural societies. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church . In many cultures, towns and cities were few, with only a small proportion of the population living in them. The Industrial Revolution attracted people in larger numbers to work in mills and factories; the concentration of people caused many villages to grow into towns and cities. This also enabled specialization of labor and crafts, and development of many trades. The trend of urbanisation has continued, though not always in connection with industrialisation. Villages have thus been eclipsed in importance as units of human society and settlement.
Traditional villages
Although many patterns of village life have existed, the typical village was small, consisting of perhaps 5 to 30 families. Homes were situated together for sociability and defence, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed. Traditional fishing villages were based around artisan fishing and located adjacent to fishing grounds.
South Asia
India
"The soul of India lives in its villages", declared M. K. Gandhi at the beginning of 20th century. According to the 2001 Indian census, 74% of Indians live in 638,365 different villages. The size of these villages varies considerably. 236,004 Indian villages have a population less than 500, while 3,976 villages have a population of 10,000+. Most villages have their own temple, mosque or church depending on the local religious following.
View of an Indian villageEast Asia
Mainland China
Main article: Village (China)In mainland China, villages 村 are divisions under township Zh:乡 or town Zh:镇 .
Taiwan In Taiwan, villages are divisions under townships or county-controlled cities. The village is called a tsuen or cūn (村) under a rural township (鄉) and a li (里) under an urban township (鎮) or a county-controlled city.
Japan See Villages of Japan
Southeast Asia
Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia
The term kampung (sometimes spelling kampong ) in the English language has been defined specifically as "a Malay hamlet or village in a Malay-speaking country" In other words, a kampung is defined today as a village in Brunei, Indonesia or Malaysia. In Malaysia, a kampung is determined as a locality with 10,000 or fewer people. Since historical times, every Malay village came under the leadership of a penghulu (village chief), who has the power to hear civil matters in his village (see Courts of Malaysia for more details). A Malay village typically contains a "masjid" (mosque) or "surau" (Muslim chapel), paddy fields and Malay houses on stilts. Malay and Indonesian villagers practice the culture of helping one another as a community, which is better known as "joint bearing of burdens" ( gotong royong ), as well as being family-oriented (especially the concept of respecting one's family ), courtesy and believing in God ( "Tuhan" ) as paramount to everything else. It is common to see a cemetery near the mosque, as all Muslims in the Malay or Indonesian village want to be prayed for, and to receive Allah's blessings in the afterlife.
Philippines
In urban areas of the Philippines, the term "village" most commonly refers to private subdivisions, especially gated communities. These villages emerged in the mid-20th century and were initially the domain of elite urban dwellers. Now they are now common in Metro Manila and other major cities in the country and their residents have a wide range of income levels. Such villages may or may not correspond to administrative units (usually barangays) and/or be privately administered. Well-known villages in Metro Manila include Forbes Park and Dasmariñas Village.
Vietnam
Village, or "làng", is a basis of Vietnam society. Vietnam's village is the typical symbol of Asian agricultural production. Vietnam's village typically contains: a village gate, "lũy tre" (bamboo hedges), "đình làng" (communal house) where "thành hoàng" (tutelary god) is worshiped, a common well, "đồng lúa" (rice field), "chùa" (temple) and houses of all families in the village. All the people in Vietnam's villages usually have a blood relationship. They are farmers who grow rice and have the same traditional handicraft. Vietnam's villages have an important role in society (Vietnamese saying: "Custom rules the law" -"Phép vua thua lệ làng" ). Everyone in Vietnam wants to be buried in their village when they die.
Central and Eastern Europe
Slavic countries
Selo (Cyrillic: село; Polish: wieś, sioło ) is a Slavic word meaning "village" in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. For example there are numerous sela (plural of selo ) called Novo Selo in Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro and others in Serbia, and Macedonia. In Slovenia, the word selo is used for very small villages (less than a thousand people) and in dialects; the Slovene word vas is used all over Slovenia.
Bulgaria
Main article: List of villages in BulgariaIn Bulgaria the different types of Sela vary from a small selo of 5 to 30 families to one of several thousand people. According to a 2002 census, in that year there were 2,385,000 Bulgarian citizens living in settlements classified as villages . A 2004 Human Settlement Profile on Bulgaria conducted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs stated that:
The most intensive is the migration “city – city”. Approximately 46% of all migrated people have changed their residence from one city to another. The share of the migration processes “village – city” is significantly less – 23% and “city – village” – 20%. The migration “village – village” in 2002 is 11%.
It also stated that
the state of the environment in the small towns and villages is good apart from the low level of infrastructure.
In Bulgaria it is becoming popular to visit villages for the atmosphere, culture, crafts, hospitality of the people and the surrounding nature. This is called selski tourism (Bulgarian:селски туризъм), meaning "village tourism".
Russia
In Russia, the bulk of the rural population are concentrated in villages. In Russian, two terms are mainly used to refer to these rural localities: selo ( село ) or derevnya ( деревня ). Historically, the formal indication of status was religious: a city ( gorod ) had a cathedral, a village ( selo ) had a church, while a hamlet ( derevnya ) had neither.
The lowest administrative unit of the Russian Empire, volost , or its Soviet or modern Russian successor, selsoviet , was usually headquartered in a selo and embraced a few neighboring villages.
Between 1926 and 1989, Russia's rural population shrank from 76 million people to 39 million, due
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