ABSTRACT
The land of the Atany peasants was bordered by big estates, medium-size holdings of landlords, and plots belonging to peasants from other villages. This frame was generally stable in time and space; generation after generation had roughly the same quantity of land at their disposal. As one investigates the rise and decline in economic status of individual families over the period of several generations, one encounters a mechanism of primary importance: how each generation hands down its property to its successors. The chances for rise and decline in wealth are illustrated by genealogical diagrams. They show how the fortune of an ancestor was transmitted to the descendants and how the latter managed to improve upon their legacies by marriage and purchase or how much they squandered of their inherited land. “Fortune” means land in this respect, being the most important and durable component of one’s material wealth.
