Evolution of Villages: socio-cultural differences between modern & traditional villages.

By: Sidra Jalal & Danar Rebar

When we hear the name of a certain area we may think that people there may have the same lifestyle and they are related. How come in the same area people may have separate backgrounds? What we see there is not more than 1 km between ancient Shindoxa and French Village. Shindoxa was the home of Jews till 1948 and now the majority of its residents are Muslims. In our research, we find that lifestyle

of people in ancient Shindoxa and French village is different despite the short space that distinguishes them they have different lifestyles. People from ancient Shindoxa still have a strong bond because they are both relatives and neighbors they participate in each other’s occasions and are there for each other in their rough times and tough situations, they still give each other a hand for making Kulicha (Kurdish traditional pastry) at days before Eid’s. Regarding their education, most of them still send their children to governmental school (Shindoxa School) and when they have a health issue they visit Shindoxa Hospital (which is a hospital with limited service). For their daily needs, groceries, and supplies they visit local markets that are in their neighborhood.

When it comes to French Village residents we can clearly find how distinguishable is their lifestyle people from French Village are not social and barely know each other they may even not know their neighbors who stay in the apartment of their alley. There is a wide range of multiculturalism in French villages since each family is from a different background. If it comes to education most of them send their kids to private schools and this has two reasons: First, they are economically stable. Second the lack of schools around French villages. For their grocery and everyday supplies, they take it from the FV market which is a professional market with a modern standard of shopping. What we found was that people from French Village don’t have any information about Shindoxa and each one of them stays there for different purposes some of them for the location that is located nearly to the center of Duhok and its view also the modern standers that the village is built on, also all the facilities that French Village provide.

As we interviewed one of the local residents of Shindoxa village ( Danar Anwer Mohammed) a student in the translation department, he stated that people in Shindoxa

are more socialized and they tend to help each other, almost every neighborhood in Shindoxa is a family, he also added that people in this village are more likely to welcome foreigners and they are on some different levels of acceptance and tolerance, meanwhile in the French Village we have interviewed one of the residents

(Jiner Seyidxan Ahmed) a local businessman who has been living in this complex village since this it was constructed and it doors were open toward people, he stated some aspects that distinguish French village from Shindoxa village which are related to their living methods, lifestyle, and how they interact with each other, in this terms he addressed that people in French village barely know each other, like they even don't know their upfront neighbor and they’re not familiar with each other, to understand this distribution between both villages we have pursued for some explanation from one of the leading social planners in Duhok who is giving lectures in university of Duhok department of human rights, Mr. Zeravan A. Amin stated that housing system is one of the most effective reasons to shape people personality and attitudes, he also added that people who live in apartment system of housing are deprived from most of cultural activities which can take place in an ordinary neighborhood, for instance people in apartments barely engage in each others death ceremonies and this is a strong evidence of impact of housing system on oneself socialization, further more he labeled some reasons that lead to this variety between both villages, for instance people economic background is what leads some of them to socialize with different classes and people from different social status, also he stated that apartment system contains a wide range of cultures and there's no agreed culture between residents, unlike apartment system in Shindoxa village people could have different cultures from each other, but they have agreed on one culture to shape their lives according to it.

There's another aspect that need to be highlighted in this topic which is the schooling process, people from French village are more likely will send their children to private schools which is one of the important aspects to shape their future and way of thinking, Dr. Samiya Saeed a leading social worker who is interested in matters of family and education addressed that there are several reasons why people send their children’s to private schools, including their economic background, at the same time the lack of transportation from French village to other public schools makes several difficulties for families and their children’s, this is why people from French village tend to send their children’s for private schools, while in the other side, most of the people from Shindoxa village don't have this high economic position, also they're more comfortable to send their children’s with their neighbors to the same school due to their strong connection.

Conclusion:

We have concluded that with all of this variation between both places, they are more likely to shape different points of view toward each other, like people from a French village have this upper class look over the lower class when they are asked about other neighborhoods from different parts of Duhok, at the same time several people who we have talked with were not familiar with Shindoxa village and they were surprised to know that there's a village nearby, while in other hand people from Shindoxa village did draw some assumptions about people from French village and they stated that people from French village are more likely the modern aristocrat class in our society.