THE SMALL VILLAGES IN THE MAROSSZÖG

Abstract

The Marosszög is an area which is not known about the small villages dominance in the settlement geography literature (however today one third of the settlements are included), but this region’s settlements were in the periphery of three bordering countries and specifically developed along the last two centuries. The formation and development of small villages was determined by the economic necessity, the everyday living of inhabitants always based on the land.  They began as tobacco gardeners, and after several economic-management product change (eg. corn, onions etc) today insisting on their ancestral heritage and tradition they are responding to socio-political challenges and expectations. The twelve examined settlements today has only a local / partial-governments, which means that all of them is a co-town of a populous city / village. Despite unfavorable demographic processes they have retained their Hungarian nationality, but nowadays these small Hungarian ethnic islands became endangered. Since the political system changed in the past quarter century, it did not change them; in this desperate situation only the silent abandoned cemeteries and churches keep the memories where they have lived their better days.