The Social Process of Village-Swarming. The Background of Founding Sinca Noua Village (Fagaras County)

Abstract

The process of founding the villages was a long and difficult one all over Romania. These social units bobbed up, knitted together, configured through the interweaving of geographical, demographic and historical determinants. Over time, the old villages (”source-villages") generated new rural settlements (”womb-villages”) by swarming, a process of anonymous moving of a part of the rural population. Sinca Noua village of Fagaras County is the result of a similar process of swarming. In most cases, the swarming process was caused by factors such as demographic growth, resources lessening or social oppression, but as far as Sinca Noua village is concerned, the religious factor was prevailing in the swarming process.