Gunda Béla et al. (szerk.): Ideen, Objekte und Lebensformen. Gedenkschrift für Zsigmond Bátky - István Király Múzeum közelményei. A. sorozat 29. (Székesfehérvár, 1989)
Ján Botík: Economic Functions of the Peasant Dwelling in Hont
Fig. 1.: Litava. Peasant estate of more prosperous and extended family with respect to their relationships. I. room, II. anteroom (entrance room), III. black kitchen, IV. chamber for sleeping, V. stable for horses, VI. cowshed for oxen, VII. cowshed for cows, VIII. sheepfold, IX. chamber for storing dresses of married women, X. yard, XI. chamber for foods, XII. workshop, XIII. shed for implements, XIV. pigsties and henhouse, XV. barn. ways of farming, a marked feature of the peasant family was represented by work for oneself. Practically, all the family needed for its sustenance was produced, by the individual members themselves and they consumed almost everything produced. Their link with the surrounding world was minimal as the family was more or less self-sufficient. Their links with the market practically did not exist because factory-production was then minimal. Under such circumstances, the agricultural production of peasant families could not specialize in plant or animal production or in growing only a certain kind of agricultural crops and raising only certain kinds of farm animals. Wherever natural conditions allowed it, plant and animal production was generally orientated to various sections. Since on every peasant farm they had been practically growing a whole range of agricultural crops, and raising all kinds of farm animals, such an orientation of small-scale production required the adjustment of building objects within the peasant yard for farming purposes. This was reflected in the occurrence of specialized building objects or sites serving either for storing agricultural products or for keeping farm animals; stabling and storing functions cannot be mutually connected and concentrated in the same place. Because diversification is also necessary in storing some products of plant production (e.g. cereals and tuber crops) and in the keeping of several types of farm animals (common keeping of animals is not always a good thing, e.g. from the aspect of animal mentality and because of manure production), the functional specification was also put into effect within the storing and stabling area. Accordingly, the economic part of the peasant dwelling consisted of several functionally specialized buildings or spaces designated for storing agricultural products, then of several rooms for keeping farm animals and usually there were other spaces for storing the means of transport the agricultural inventory, wood for heating, etc. Within the economic and production types of individual regions of Slovakia there was a permanent basic composition of economic objects in the peasant yard with respect to their kind and function. Its more or less complete representation depended on the extent of the peasant estate and also on the possibility of covering all or only part of the ragge of growing and raising activities that was considered to be common in the given locality of region. So far I have attempted to characterize the most general links between the peasant estate and the economic functions of the peasant dwelling. I shall now try to elucidate these universally functioning links with respect to the composition and function of the economic objects of the peasant dwelling in the region on of Hont. For storing threshed corn around the beginning of the 19th century and in dwellings of less prosperous strata even in this century, there was a komora (chamber), placed next to the pitvor (anteroom). Till approximately the 19th century the more well-to-do farmers used ütnie jami (corn pits) to store their corn. Sometimes they placed them in front of their houses (e.g. in Lisov and Dvorniky), sometimes they were jointly placed at the edge of villages (e.g. Celovce, Krnisov, Horné Rykyncice) or they could also be found in barns near threshing sites (e.g. Trpin, Horny Badin, Devicie). From the first half of the 19th century a special space for storing grain started to be kept separate on the estates of the more well-to-do farmers, which was also differentiated from the chamber next the anteroom by its name—si párna, obilnà komora, komora na zrno (granary). It was more frequently placed opposite the house in the front part of the yard as its second area. But it could also be found under a common roof with the house behind the anteroom chamber, the back room or even behind the cowshed. From the second half of the 19th century it also formed a component part of the brick laid barn. In the region of Hont special forms of dwellings of extended families arose in several localities. Their peculiarity as 162