ABSTRACT
The majority of the population of Atany are peasants who till their own soil, small landowners, landless day laborers, and people who work as farm hands, usually on large estates. Although the people of the village are well aware of the differences in wealth and way of life among these groups, they see them all as belonging to a superordinate category which distinguishes them from other citizens by the fact that all of them live by tilling the soil, either their own property or someone else’s. “The people of the soil” are divided into two large groups: “team owners” and “teamless farmers.” Various types of teams are owned by the Atany peasants. Some raise young colts and use them to till their soil, others own valuable adult thoroughbred horses. In some stables oxen as well as horses are found, and a few farmers keep only oxen, though this is exceptional.
