Is it fair or accurate to use terms like villages, peasants?

minerva_feliz · #1 06-09-2009, 09:52 PM

Whether in someone's blog describing a vacation or service trip to the DR or in travel guides such as Lonely Planet, I have come across the following terms to describe some people and locations in the DR: villages, villagers and peasants. I have been here a while in a rural area, and am from one originally, and I am confused about the usage of such words.

For example, Lonely Planet calls Cabral, located near Barahona in the southwest, a village. Why? When I hear village, I think of remote, primative in Africa or something. To make sure I wasn't confused, I looked up village on dictionary.com and found: "a small community or group of houses in a rural area, larger than a hamlet and usually smaller than a town, and sometimes (as in parts of the U.S.) incorporated as a municipality." Ok. I also looked up town, and feel that Cabral and many other sites deemed "villages" are more like towns. Cabral has around 13,000 residents, paved roads, gas station, is a Municipality, has light and running water (mostly), has an oficialia, several schools, decent-sized park, jail and rural hospital. That's just one example, I'm sure there are some from elsewhere.

Debate: Should such places be called villages, and the Dominicans there villagers or peasants?
Consider:-Does the tourism industry have a special interest in using "villages" to make the places and people seem more quaint/primative, therefore appealing to tourists for 'excursions'?
-Do non-profits and churches have an interest to make people feel more sympathy for the people there and perceive that there is more extreme poverty?
-Is it non-pc to use the terms, like using third-world to describe countries?
-Does campo translate to village?
-Did people in developed countries develop the term in a biased way to describe anywhere that there isn't a McDonald's?

-If you are a Dominican from or in a place that gets called "village" and you a "villager", how do you feel about that?

NALs · #2 06-09-2009, 10:25 PM

There is nothing wrong or bad about the word village. In fact, in some places in the U.S. (i.e., Connecticut) having a city legally identified as a village (or town) boosts local property values. Look up Greenwich, CT and see why this is the only city that via lawsuits by its own residents is now legally referred to as a town; despite having a population above 60k which by CT laws should be referred as a city. (BTW, these are some of the wealthiest communities in the entire U.S. with average property values surpassing US$1 million). So, there is nothing wrong with the word village.

Peasants, I think, applies to subsistence farmers. To refer to anyone as a peasant for simply living in the country is wrong if they are not farmers. There are many people, whether in the DR or abroad, that live in rural areas; but their lifestyle is anything but rural. To rfer to them as peasants would be a stretch.

As for the word villagers, well, if they live in a village, I don't see what's the problem calling them villagers.

-Does the tourism industry have a special interest in using "villages" to make the places and people seem more quaint/primative, therefore appealing to tourists for 'excursions'?
Perhaps, but again, the word village or villages has no negative or primitive connotation. If anything, it gives a patina of quaintness to a place.

A few words they probably don't use is shack/hut for typical Dominican rural homes. Cottages is probably used instead, or even the Spanish word "casita."

-Do non-profits and churches have an interest to make people feel more sympathy for the people there and perceive that there is more extreme poverty?
I believe so, but the words you are concerned about has little to do with this. There are a few NGOs that are 'inclined' to using the worst statistics on any subject, especially when its time to get funding. If they need funding and are looking for poverty level data, they will most likely use the source presenting the highest poverty levels. They may be a little more pessimistic of the overall future of any group of people, particularly those under their help, in order to justify a further meddling in such people's lives.

Sometimes such is warranted, but other times its not so clear.

-Is it non-pc to use the terms, like using third-world to describe countries?
Don't know.

-Does campo translate to village?
The correct translation, from my perspective, is that pueblo=downtown and campo=suburbs. Despite the word pueblo literally meaning town, every Dominican municipality encompasses the urbanized area as well as the sorrounding rural areas. Sometimes the rural area is very expansive, as is the case with Higüey which includes all the rural areas between the town and the Punta Cana area, despite the distance.

Now, campo doesn't translate to village, but certain districts within a municipality may receive special legal recognition (Distrito Municipal), in which I think the term village may apply if the population and number of buildings is more or less as what a village should be.

Then there are municipalities that are very small in population and only a tiny part of the territory is developed with buildings, roads, etc. which would result in a village.

-Did people in developed countries develop the term in a biased way to describe anywhere that there isn't a McDonald's?
Highly doubt it.

-If you are a Dominican from or in a place that gets called "village" and you a "villager", how do you feel about that?
I'm not from a village, but it should not have any negative connotations.

Like I said in the beginning, in some places in the US, a place being officially recognized as a village can have a deep impact in people's net worth, especially if their net worth is heavily based on the value of their property(ies).

There is something desirable about a village. There is nothing wrong with the word village.

-NALs

bob saunders · #3 06-09-2009, 10:27 PM

I am a Canadian from a village of about 3500 people. People are called Villagers. There is no negative connotation to either. I come from a rich village. Peasants to me has a negative connotation, but is it not like calling somebody a campesino.

Chirimoya · #4 06-09-2009, 10:32 PM

I agree that the word 'peasant' and even 'campesino' may have come to have negative connotations, especially in certain contexts, but in essence they are neutral terms meaning farmer/country dweller.

In Europe we use the terms 'village' and 'villagers', and although it sometimes does imply a certain degree of quaintness it is not considered a negative term whatsoever. Maybe the LP guidebook was written by a European?

Describing Cabral as a village - unless you know the place well it might give the impression of being a village or a at least a very small town, but as you say, 13,000 people is not a village. It may be a case of a factual error rather than an attempt to make it sound more primitive and quaint.

Something that confused me to start off with was that the Dominican term 'un campo' is more or less the equivalent of 'village', as opposed to 'el campo' which means 'the countryside' or 'rural area'.

Onions/Carrots · #5 06-09-2009, 10:37 PM

I am a CAMPESINO/PEASANT from a small VILLAGE.

Chirimoya · #6 06-09-2009, 10:45 PM

There has been discussion of the accuracy of the term 'third world' here on the forums in the past, and most agree it's outdated - the so-called 'second world' ceased to exist some years ago. Other distinctions like north/south and the western world and whatever the non-western world is known as are also inadequate and inaccurate.

These days international organisations tend to use 'middle income countries' and 'emerging economies' to describe countries like the DR, but 'third world' has endured as an imperfect shorthand for countries in this category.

minerva_feliz · #7 06-09-2009, 10:49 PM

Thanks NALs and bobsaunders. Technically speaking I'm from a hamlet and went to high school in a village in the U.S., though I have never heard them referred to as that! I had the perception that villages implied lack of development, and that's probably because I hear/see the word most in contexts referring to poverty or developing countries. On dictionary.com though, if you look up village and then click on "village life", all the stuff related to that makes villages seem like areas with little development or infraestructure, none of those cozy high-end places. I also perceive that if you did some random searches for images or pages with village/villagers, it would come up with mostly the "primative" places that I am associating with village and not just whatever places match the size criteria.

I know a couple foreigners who don't agree with calling rural Dominicans "villagers" or the towns they live in "villages" because of what folks back home would mis-interpret about their level of development. Personally I prefer to use small town and residents instead. Btw I posted this because I was wondering what it might have to do with people's perceptions of the rural DR.

bob saunders · #8 06-09-2009, 11:08 PM

Here is an American Village
File:BellowsFalls.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Looks like there is a level of service.

jrhartley · #9 06-09-2009, 11:09 PM

is small town residents preferable to villagers ? who knows...why use three words when you can use one lol

minerva_feliz · #10 06-09-2009, 11:44 PM

I googled "village woman". I am a village woman, right? In the first three pages, why are there only images of women from developing countries and many linked to sites related to poverty? There are no pictures of any middle-class women in Candada, U.S., Europe in the first 10 pages. Googled "villagers". No images of those places, only overseas, poor, and screen shots of a very popular video game called "Virtual Villagers". I have played the game, it's about this tribe that ends up on a deserted island, and you have to teach them things so they evolve and survive, like how to build huts, plant and harvest, invent natural medical cures and build shrines to do dances and worship their gods. Why do you think they chose the word villagers to describe that kind of game if that's not the stereotype of villagers?

Thanks to the villagers and others for helping me find positive and accurate examples of villages/villagers and instilling me with a greater sense of village self-awareness. But think pictionary: the word is villager. What will the person draw to get others to guess? A couple of a cul-de-sacs with nice landscaping and a soccer mom out front, or a hut with a person wearing some tribal gear and possibly a spear in hand?

I don't think the word villager in itself, and when used correcty is bad at all. I see it as an issue of perception by people about it means when describing places and people in foreign countries like the DR.