Wow guys! This is great. I find it fascinating that the replies I got asking this on facebook are much less detailed. Maybe it’s due to who my friends are, and maybe it’s that I primed you differently with the title of the thread.
I’m seeing somesome commonalities and a tendency to think either of the British or French “ideal” village, existing in, or frozen in the state of the 18th-19th century, or pre-industrial villages, but also such a variety for the ones who didn’t end up there.
And I’m delighted to see more than one “Small independent village in Roman occupied Gaul”.
I’m seeing more complex feedback than I initially anticipated, so it’s going to be harder to show the results in a quantitative manner, but I’ll work out some way to do that.
The goal of the exercise itself was to get some hard data before working more seriously on an idea I have for communicating ideas about community, society and government. I think we all underestimate how different the mental models we use to evaluate the world around us are, and how important they are in interpreting any statement about society, and I was envisioning one type of model to use could be a certain type of village.
But even establishing that as a model would require dealing with the image of a village already in people’s minds, but I imagined one could start with an exercise such as this to show a group of students how even basic words evoke different images in people’s minds, before defining the exact parameters of the model (in the sense of simplified, not the sense of perfect) community the class would use to explore ideas about community, society and government.
The village tavern and bakery are next door to each other, and form the social hub of the town.
The village proper is narrow, stretching along a single road. Farms spread up and down a river that the road crosses at the edge of town.
There are two churches, on opposite ends of the village. Both are a little rundown, because the population isn’t big enough to support two churches, but they won’t merge, ostensibly because of minor doctrinal disputes.
The village’s resident odd duck is a young scholar, pursuing an advanced degree in music history, who relocated to the village to study the lively local music tradition. The older villagers tolerate her because she pays attention to their stories and songs; most of the younger residents are fascinated by her, and several have a crush on her.
There is a cleared commons on the edge of the village, used mainly for festivals. It is centered on a particularly gnarled oak called “the Old Man”; the tree was left alone when the village got its start as a logging camp because of its human-like shape. There are several local superstitions and minor customs revolving around the Old Man.
It’s in Eastern Europe, far from the sea but on the banks of a small river.
There is a central square that once served as weekly market and general meeting space. Now it is deserted most of the time
Women wear colourful head scarves and share resources as the men work on land their grandfathers once owned but they are now employed on for the giant conglomerate that came in 20 years ago.
There is a small convenience store attached to the petrol station at a nearby rest stop for a major highway but the village shops are shuttered and the few teenagers have to be bussed in to the nearest town for school. There is still a primary school but one teacher covers all the grades and if one more family moves away they will lose that.
When kids leave school they leave the village for work, many never even look back.
I went away for a bit, so that I could read my own post with relatively fresh eyes as well as read the others. Having done so, I can see some of the things that influenced my model for a village.
Scale. I’m from a small rural town, but still a “town”. “Village” means a place significantly smaller than my hometown, which means it’s a very small place indeed.
Geography. The layout of my model village is similar to my hometown–stretched out along a highway, then cut off at a river.
Culture. I enjoy fantasy fiction and games, which, as a genre, tend to lean toward Fantasy Medieval European for settings. This probably accounts for the tavern/bakery combo, though other elements of my village suggest a different location and era.
Annie-Xmas, I love the fact that we both have a landmark oak tree in our villages.
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. I walked into my Concepting class (design students, at a local tech college) and wrote your OP on the board.
Wiiiiide range of villages… One example:
The village has been built into the walls of a deep cave.
It is naturally honeycombed, lit and powered by crystals.
The crystals are mined from much deeper in the earth, and are suspected to be extraterrestrial in origin.
The giant mushrooms that grow in the cave are used as a food source…
But are so massive, that they are hollowed out and used as houses.
One village was floating on domed asteroids around a distant moon, one was in modules so deep underwater that they had to simulate light and dark. And one had the gravity occasionally turned off. All these were illustrated, given that the respondents were all future designers.
Oh, one village had “tamed” dragons, but many generations ago, the dragons decided they’d had enough, ate the humans and set up a society in the people houses.
Out of curiosity, did you put up the whole OP, or just the two lines defining the exercise? The first sentence (particularly the references to common mental spaces and real world data) may have primed us to respond with relatively realistic locales. If so, that in itself may be a valuable reference point for naita. (On the other hand, it could just be a function of the class’s social dynamic.)
My partner’s answer (I asked him to describe a village, with 5 facts about it):
A village in the mountains, ruined houses been destroyed by the Borg. Devoid of life. Machinery still running, a juke box playing, advertising billboards flashing. It’s the middle of the day, warm and sunny.
My answer:
An early 20th century English village. Delivery boys ride bicycles through the streets. Houses are whitewashed, with small front gardens full of flowers. There is a high street, with small shops, butcher’s bakery etc. There is are three roads in and out, and it is surrounded by farms and fields.
(I also started to think about a more primitive type of village, with more poverty, people and noise, but I didn’t have as many ideas about that one.)
I’m glad you’re getting some interesting responses. When I think of village, my brain immediately goes to one of the many suburbs of the city I live in. Many are called “villages” instead of cities or towns or townships or whatever. We have the Village of Howard, Village of Ashwaubenon, etc. So my definition of “village” was basically a suburb… Sorry if that throws a wrench in your data!
(1) tribal, population less than 500
(2) smallish island in the ocean
(3) no electrical technology
(4) good family relations
(5) no firearms or any weapon beyond a bow and arrow or crossbow
The houses are thached
Residents include is a potter, a butcher and a blacksmith
All the houses are on a single street
Chickens wander freely
There is a communal well
The houses are scattered over several hills, with green space around and between the houses.
Most but not all of them are two story.
The people are comfortable (physically and emotionally) living there.
I see the houses and the hillsides in my head; but I don’t actually see the people.
– That fifth one strikes me as odd. And I actually know a lot more about the place than five items (even allowing for the fact that my #2 is arguably two items, not one).
Now give me five core facts/descriptions about/of this village. Just the first that pop up in your mind.
This place is entirely populated by large stupid humanoids with sharp crooked teeth who live in caves in the valley.
Their chief method is trade is one-sided. They take livestock and wayward children from nearby settlements and leave nothing.
Although big and brutal, they don’t stick around if the place they raid offers too much resistance. Finding something to eat isn’t worth getting killed.
Any structures they build are ramshackle and usually consists of dead trees and scrap. They primarily live and store things in their caves.
They have no remarkable skills except for bopping animals and people on the head with their clubs, and field dressing.
The first idea that pops into my head is “circle.” It gives protection and identity to the inhabitants.
The second is “links.” The individuals, or the families, form the links which make up the circle. This lends to the idea that everyone is interconnected, and all contribute as members of the village. A link can be removed or added, but they all must be joined to comprise the village.
My third idea is “interdependent.” You can have the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. But everyone cannot be a butcher, or a baker. Who will buy the bread if everyone bakes? Where will you get your candles?
Fourth is “solidarity.” The village welcomes travelers and traders, and who doesn’t love a wandering minstrel? But no one will be permitted to kill the baker, rape his wife, throw the kids out the back door into the slops, and then commandeer the ovens and become the village baker. The village would rally and stand as one to prevent such a happening.
And finally, “solace.” Village life is hard, illness and death are indeed a part of life. When one link is crushed, they all unite to rejoin the chain, and they all give comfort to the grieving.
Somehow, this beats the Hell out of the isolationist suburban life of today!
~VOW
I’m going to answer the OP and then go back and read the others. I am picturing a main street, maybe 2 miles long, two driving lanes, two parking lanes, almost fully filled with parked cars.
At each end of the main street is a gas station.
In the middle of the main street, the dept. store has just closed; cannot compete with Amazon.
About 1/4 of the way down the main street there is a school and a park on one side and a library on the other.
There are five restaurants along the main street.
There are ten clothing stores along the main street, half of which specialize in shoes.
Ah, good point. No, I just wrote “IMAGINE A VILLAGE…” and under that, “and write five facts about it.”
Later, I added (when I noticed half the class was done), “If you’ve got your five facts, you can draw your village.”
One woman said “Finally, a Creative Exercise I can get excited about…” (Sorry you didn’t like drawing yourself as a superhero and listing your powers. Guess it was too much of a stretch, Ms. Luthor…) But I’m still blown away by how enthusiastic they were, and how invested they were in THEIR village.
Use my imagination, you say? Do you know I once wrote a horror story about murderous grapes? And that my last year’s job dialog was nothing but a bunch of random and obviously made-up “facts” about snakes?**
With that out of the way, let me tell you about this village.
“It’s got a fence o’ course, ya gotta have a fence. A big, fuck-off, tall one wit razor wire all round the top and towers for the men wit the guns. The village goes past the fence, ya can’t raise livestock or grow crops inside the fence, it’d be too damn big. All the houses are inside the fence, though, ya don’t want yer house to get all wrecked up when the Bad Things come round. All the other important buildings, too, like the bell tower and the town hall and the blood pit and the gunnery. I’m not happy when my turn comes up to stand in the towers, it’s hard to stay awake when yer only standing and watching, ya know, but it’s important, cause the Bad Things might show up any minute. I’d rather walk round the fields wit a gun and a flair, cause walking keeps the blood pumping. The other jobs ain’t bad, tending the fields, herding the animals. Sometimes I wish I had my letters and numbers so I could work in Town Hall or the gunnery. Or that I had a Mark o’ the Dark so I could make sacrifices at the blood pit. But we all do our parts, you know? That’s what being a village is all about. We can all live safe, mostly, not like the steel freaks and the people movers, always on the run, hardly able sleep through a night, just trying to stay alive. Yeah, sometimes my neighbors are right bastards, sometimes I don’t even get to hears the screams from the blood pit, but it’s okay, all for all. Most of us’ll live to see old age and most of our kids will, too. That’s what it means to live in a village.”
Hope you found something interesting in there! Now to read the rest of the thread.
**My boss told me I could write “whatever I want”. He and his peers found it quite amusing.
After reading the other responses, I see that I am something of outlier. I can’t say I’m not used to it :D. I’m sorry if you wanted things in a more concise format, but I’m sure you can find at least five things that distinguish my village. If you give me the opportunity to write a story I cannot turn it down, my fault not yours.
Out of curiosity, what subject are you trying to educate people in? What is your goal, what do you want your students to take away? If you don’t feel uncomfortable saying, of course. No need to reveal anything to this internet rando if you don’t want to.
When I teach for real I teach math, so this isn’t directly applicable, although I’m finding a lot of lessons about information gathering and designing and implementing questions and questionnaires in this.
This is more about some ideas I have for making understanding the communities large and small we live in easier by using a small unit as a model for the larger ones. But of course models all have their challenges, and I wanted to be able to write something about the variability in view you’d get, unbeknownst to you, if you go “imagine a village” and expect your audience to be in the same place as you as you build your model.
Of course that prompt would give a different result in a different context. Even just emphasizing short answers more, as I did on Facebook, got me less imaginative answers. Although I did get at least two “last free village in Roman occupied Gaul”.
