Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1977 (5. évfolyam, 13-15. szám)
1977 / 13. szám
siHUNGARIAN sxm\ STUDIES sf^mllNEWSLETTER No. 13 Spring 1977 Published three times a year: Winter, Spring and Autumn Editor: Dr. Bela C. Maday Journal Review Editor: Dr. Enikő' M. Basa Corresponding Editor: Dr. Lorant Czigany (London) Communications concerning content should be sent to the: EDITOR, HSN 4528 - 49th STREET, N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20016 Annual subscription in the United States: $3.00; abroad $4.00. Current single copy $1.00; back issues $1.50 each. Communications concerning subscriptions, advertising and circulation should be sent to: HUNGARIAN RESEARCH CENTER AMERICAN HUNGARIAN FOUNDATION 177 SOMERSET STREET P.O. BOX 1084 NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. 08903 BOOKS (Continued) for the protection of mother and child; Sándor Balint’s “Contributions to the Hungarian popular belief system in regard to the plague” deals with cults of St. Sebastian, St. Roch, and St. Rosalia; Aurél Vajkai provides a thorough discussion of a handwritten medical book from the 18th century; and Andor Oláh writes about epidemiological observations and concepts in Békés County. Enyedi, Gy. RURAL TRANSFORMATION IN HUNGARY. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó', 1976. 116 pages, tables, maps. $7.00 cloth. Industrialization and the socialist orderbroughtfundamental changes to rural and urban Hungary.” Rural space, “as conceived by the authors of this book, is “areas of settlement that do not have legal, administrative status as towns.” They hasten to admit, however, that “administrative boundaries do not reflect precisely the functional borders between town and village.” That portion of the population living in the rural space is about 52% of the total, some 10% less than in 1930. Thus absolute number of Hungarians living in the rural space has changed little in the past 45 years. A higher birthrate replaced those who migrated to urban centers. The small villages decreased in size and in number, the large villages grew larger and more numerous. The lifestyle of the village inhabitants changed remarkably. In 1970 there were some 45,000 independent peasants or less than 2% of the 2.6 million agricultural earners. The rest of them worked as employees of cooperatives and state farms. The combined independent and dependent agriculturalists constituted 22% of the country’s labor force. Enyedi believes that by 1985 only 15% of the earners will be employed in agriculture. A marked number of rural residents work not on the land but in factories. Some factories have come to the villages, but more villagers commute to towns. About 58% of the rural earners are employed in nonagricultural jobs. Over one million persons commute daily or weekly (some monthly) to factories in urban areas. Such a dramatic shift in place and kind of employment has an equal effect on income differences, which may be thought of “in the differing proportion of wage-earners and dependents on the one hand, and in the diversity of the social class structure on the other." The volume contains the following chapters: E.T. Vörösmarti, Demographic Characteristics of Rural Settlements; P. Beluszky, Functional Types of Rural Settlement in Hungary; L. Lackó, The Hamlet and Farmstead Regions of Hungary; Planning Problems; Z. Tatai, The Growth of Rural Industry; Gy. Barta, Changes in the Living Conditions of the Rural Population; I. Berényi, The Environmental Problems of Agricultural Land Use in Rural Areas. This volume is no. 13 in the series, Studies in Geography in Hungary. Other volumes still available are (5) Research Problems in Hungarian Applied Geography; (6) Geomorphological Regions in Hungary; (7) Recent Population Movements in the East European Countries; (8) Problems of Relief Planation; (9) The Changing Face of the Great Hungarian Plain; (10) Budapest. An Industrial- Geographical Approach; (11) Man and Environment; and (12) Regional Development and Planning, British and Hungarian Case Studies. Hajdd, Pétered. ANCIENT CULTURES OF THE URALIAN PEOPLES. Corvina Press, Budapest, 1976. 336 pages, illustr. $18.90 cloth. Uralic studies, a well established field of scientific endeavor up to now has been cultivated mainly by linguists, ethnographers, and Orientalists. Only in recent decades have archaeologists, folklorists, ethnomusicologists, historians of religion and other scholars generted interest in the Finno- Ugrian and Samoyed peoples who are wedged between German, Slavic, Latin, and Turkish populations, and are scattered in the central and eastern parts of Euope and in the north-western corner of Siberia. Best known, perhaps because of their recorded cultural achievements and because of their number, are the Finns, Estonians, and Hungarians. It is noteworthy to say that the contributors to this volume are Finnish and Hungarian scholars. A total of fourteen contributors deal with the areas of linguistics, archaeology, material culture, folk art and mythology. Not only is it a useful summary of developments in the general field of Uralic studies, but also it represents several new dimensions and new facts. There is ample reference to the traditional interest in ethnogenesis, as well as to new methodologies and new perspectives. The volume is well illustrated with line drawings, photos, charts, maps, and its language is suitable for the lay reader as well. Horecky, Paul L. and David H. Kraus eds. EAST CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST EUROPE: A Handbook of Library and Archival Resources in North America. Clio Press, 2040 Alameda Padre Serra, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. 467 pages. $35.75 cloth. This impressive volume is intended to provide scholars, librarians, students, and researchers “with a basic reference tool for the study of the essential collections available in major libraries, archives, and research institutions in the 2 NO. 13, 1977 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
