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THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE FROM ROMANIA

Lucian David

First published: 2011-06-20https://doi.org/10.5593/sgem2011/s20.178View metrics

Abstract

From working in the field, sheep herding, washing laundry in the river's whirlpool, ritual singing in the young forest, traditional dancing of the village , all the way to the office job, dry cleaning, disco, hip-hop and neighbor-hood slang, took only a few centuries time. The peasants’ time was well di vided: preparing weather calendars in the winter, working the fields or taking the sheep flock up the mountain in the spring, gathering the harvest and celebrating in the fall. No missed occasion for him, who take part to the joys but also to the sorrows going on in the villa ge, strengthening his relationship with the community. In contrast to the urban citizen for whom stress, a sedentary lifestyle and the indifference towards others of his kind makes time go faster without noticing the sand draining in the hourglass. The town and the village, two great worlds separated through lifestyle: one as the promoter of innovations, the other one, as the keeper. While one destroys the older forms of life, the other passively endures or accepts innovation, and the ethnographic landscape stands uncorrupted by the modern civilization, like a dowry of the villages wh ich allows us to know how our grandparents and great-grandparents used to live. Through the gradual rise in awareness of society, the need to support both cultural diversity and its practical role, in this mode rn age, of traditional elements, we hope to gain ground inside ethnographic landscap e, causing the proper protection and conservation of it, so that future generations can enjoy this dowry of the village. This return to nature is common in past decades. As an example, the Arabian Peninsula residents seek today to desalinate water by traditional methods, Cotmeana Platform residents have been using “benturi” for h undreds of years for multiple utilities: they store water for household use, grow different species of fish and filter the water through several layers of sand and gravel turning it into drinking water, also vegetables grown by farmers without the use of artificial fe rtilizers, natural dairy products without preservatives and additives, hand sewn w ool carpets. Examples are numerous, all showing that the life experience of parents, grandmothers, grandfathers, etc. taught them to use the landscape in which they lived, so as not to destroy it. On ly in this way could both man and nature have had health. It remains to be seen whet her these traditional villages w ill remain rural settlements or become small towns after 30 years and if we will know how to teach the population about how important it is to protect this wealth of ours: popular culture, sheltered by the village that created it.

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Publication details

Title
THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE FROM ROMANIA
Authors
Lucian David
Proceedings
SGEM International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference EXPO Proceedings; SGEM2011 11th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference
Publisher
Stef92 Technology
Year
2011
Pages
Not available yet
ISSN
1314-2704
ISBN
Not available yet
Language
en
Publication type
Conference Paper
References10
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  2. Braaksma Patricia, Perceptions of cultural landscapes, in Landscape and rural heritage. European spatial planning and landscape, no 88. Sixth meeting of the Workshops of the Council of Europe for th e implementation of the European Landcape Convention, Sibiu, Romania, 20-21 Septem ber 2007, Council of Europe Publishing, pp 257-264, 2009;

  3. Collignon Patrice, Situation et défis du monde rural – Le patrimoine et le paysage au coeur des enjeux du développement territorial durable, in Landscape and rural heritage. European spatial planning and landscape, no 88. Sixth meeting of the Workshops of the Council of Europe for th e implementation of the European Landcape Convention, Sibiu, Romania, 20-21 September 2007, Council of Europe Publishing, pp 99-103, 2009;

  4. von Haaren Christina, Landscape planning facing the challenge of the development of cultural landscapes, Landscape and Urban Planning, issue 60, pp 73-80, 2002;

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  7. Popovici Elena-Ana, The Evolution of the Land an the Quality of the Environment in Cotmeana Platform, Phd thesis, Institute of Geography, Bucharest, 2008;

  8. Stephenson Janet, The Cultural Values Model: An in tegrated approach to values in landscapes, Landscape and Urban Planning, issue 84, pp 127-139, 2008;

  9. Vâlsan G., Anthropo-geographical, ethnographical and geopolitical studies, editate de I. Cuceu, Foundation for european studies, Cluj-Napoca, 2001;

  10. MTCT, Guide to exploiting the rural, Prisma, Bucharest, 2006.

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