Changing Resources in Transylvanian Villages from Self-Sufficient Households to the Global Market
Changing Resources in Transylvanian Villages from Self-Sufficient Households to the Global Market

Summary/Abstract: One important component of our accumulated knowledge about Transylvanian villages is the (partial) autonomy of these villages, understood from a historical perspective, at the level of both households and village communities. Another important component is the marked presence of interhousehold cooperation. Based on this autonomy and cooperation, and their eradication, the present paper argues that social, economic, and political restructuring has made village communities, once heavily reliant on endogenous resources, increasingly dependent on external, exogenous resources. Drawing on research in Transylvanian contexts, mainly in Bahnea/Bonyha and Nuşfalău/Szilágynagyfalu, the paper explores the process of eradication, and its contradictions, by discussing changes in animal husbandry, household management, foraging, and time spent in nature, before placing it in a global context using historical and recent examples. The paper then addresses the question of how all these aspects can be understood in terms of resilience, sustainability, and complexity.

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