ABSTRACT
In June of 1964, Karoly Egyud, Jr., a twenty-four-year-old Atany peasant, was in an automobile accident. He was in the Eger hospital for six weeks before he died. During this time his close and distant relatives visited him every day, bringing him bottles of water from the local well to quench his thirst. First of all, Atany’s unity is local: the comprehensive entity comprised of the zug-s, neighborhoods, and Lower and Upper Ends. Belonging to Atany means living in the compact settlement unit. Both the villagers and the inhabitants of the neighboring villages regard the village as a round thing, comparing it to an apple, and thereby expressing its totality and unity. Most of the Atany people who work in the capital regard the city environment as a separate world. Many of them have jobs in gardening establishments, but they never bring a seedling or ornamental shrub home to their own yards.
