Nagy Gyula: Parasztélet a vásárhelyi pusztán (A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 4. Békéscsaba, 1975)
Idegennyelvű kivonatok, képaláírások, képek
PEASANT LIFE ON „VÁSÁRHELYI-PUSZTA" The "puszta" where our readers will be led to is not the same as it is known all over the world from the poetry of Petőfi and Heine but a vivid part of today's reality without any kind of false romanticism of the common sense. It is a segment of the recent past of Hungarian history, the relics of what can still be found and will probably be found whereas with a decreasing intensivity in the future. The author's aim was to erect a monument to the memory of a vanishing world that shows the signs of dying on the surface but in a deeper level indicates a more vivid impression. Anyway it is worthwile for description because it is characteristic of a certain period and a certain human behaviour. The cultural anthropologist searched for the creative working people of peasant conduct and tried to make his life understood. This "puszta" (desert) is situated about the centre of the Hungarian plain, approximately 40 kilometres north from the river Maros and about 20 kilometres east from river Tisza, at the south east corner of Hungary. It lies between two big agricultural towns of the Hungarian plain, Hódmezővásárhely (52 800 inhabitants in 1970; 47 300 ha territory) and Orosháza (33 350 inhabitants in 1970; 20 217 ha territory). It belonged to the first one on the basis of proprietary rights but geographically it is situated closer to the second one. There are considerable ethnocultural differences between these towns. Hódmezővásárhely is an old habitation continuous even during the Turkish occupation. It received into itself the population of the surrounding villages having been destroyed in the 16 th —17 th centuries and annexed their territories. As a result of this, now, it owns about 80 000 ha territory mostly of first rate quality. Its population belongs to the Calvinistic religion. Orosháza was founded in 1744 by Hungarian colonists of Lutherenian religion from WestTransdanubia, who had lived in the East-Transdanubian Zomba for a shorter time and they had changed their living places bacause of religious reasons. This plain (Vásárhelyi Puszta) was a real desert in the true sense of the word till the middle of the 19 th century. The area is made somewhat varied by deserted, dried up rivers, low hills, elevations (level difference of 1—2 metres). Loess soil is determinant here, that is most suitable for cultivation, but there is also a great percentage of more or less sodic soil that is useless even for pasturing aims. They are the varied conditions of soil that had determined mostly the agriculture of the "puszta" during the last century. Till 1853—54 the "puszta" was a common pasture of Hódmezővásárhely. It was used commonly undividedly by a certain set system. But later it was divided into 6 hectars parcels and distributed among those who had a right to public ownership. Then the area had still preserved its desert-like character for a short period but it soon became populous as houses and farmbuildings (commonly named "tanya") were built on the parcels now privately owned. Usually an employer or one of the owner's children moved to live there and tillaged the field, having turned almost the whole of it into plough-land. So for 1869 the "puszta" had about 4 thousands inhabitants but its name is still preserved. As in Hódmezővásárhely there was relatively a great ammount of cultivable soil and 631
