Environment
Leefmilieu • Umwelt
 ife in rural communities of times gone by was even less separable from the natural
environment than it is nowadays. Housing and working conditions were
far less sheltered from the elements. All outdoors work was
performed with complete exposure to the elements. People learned to predict
weather conditions and to work around inclement weather. While they were
surely not impervious to nature’s beauty, most of them did not regard the natural
environment with the type of sentimentality we now know from romantic
art created by people unfamiliar with the true rigors of traditional
rural life. Country people endeavor to live off the land. This includes
taming the natural environment and making use of its flora and fauna,
also uprooting naturally grown vegetation to make room for agriculture.
Utility is of foremost importance, as is respect for nature’s power and fickleness. Fear of natural disasters and of competing predators
as well as of lurking paranormal entities is inextricably woven into
the
fabrics of rural folklore, much of which even we living in large, modern
cities have inherited.
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We
are still waiting for works on this topic.
