Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1980 (8. évfolyam, 23-26. szám)
1980 / 25. szám
the Soviet Union encouraged Hungarian claims, only to support Romania once the war ended. “Developments in the period under review—1940-46— demonstrate that Soviet policy effectively exploited this problem in order to acquire influence and to fortify its position with both the Rumanian and the Hungarian peoples, not only among the political forces which were ideologically and politically close to the Soviet Union but even among rival ideological circles,” says the author. Although the Transylvanian question as such has been removed from the agenda of the great powers, it remains a source of tension between Hungary and Romania, and of national ferment in the internal affairs of Romania itself. G Reining, Conrad C. “The Transformation of Hungarian Villages” in Village Viability in Contemporary Society by Priscilla Copeland Reining and Barbara Lenkerd eds. Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301 for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Selected Symposium no. 34, 1980, pp. 109-121. The author studied the Hungarian village through archival research and during 11 months of fieldwork mainly among German speaking villagers in the Tolna-Baranya region. His interest centers on various attributes, which characterize the village in a historical perspective, and in its present effort of adaptation to a dramatically changing socio-political environment. Because the government agreed to accommodate demands for privately owned household plots, a combination of the old and new system exists side by side, in which a significant surplus over household needs is produced. The way of life has altered as reflected in the shifts of population in such areas as occupational structure, and age disribution. Official policy seems to favor maintenance of the viability of the village, backing up its intent with extensive improvement of public utilities. Electrification, installation of piped water systems, provisions of gas for cooking, expansion of the food distribution networks, educational and medical institutions, and better access to public media are all designed to reduce the traditional and often invidious distinction between urban and rural lifeways. Those remaining in the village participate in geographical mobility to a much greater degree than in the past, and have become income oriented rather than land oriented. “Villages,” concludes the author, “will survive but with different social and economic functions.” The author is prof, of anthropology at Catholic U. of America. G Sakmyster, Thomas L, “The Great Powers and the Magyar Minorities of Interwar Europe,” Nationalities Papers VMM (Spring 1980), pp. 21-28. When Hungary wasvirtually crippled by the vindictive terms of the 1920 peace treaty, post-war governments of Hungary decided on a policy which was based not only on the acceptance of the overall concepts of the treaty, but also on patient and aggressive efforts toward a revision, which would free the three million Hungarians, who were incorporated into the successor states. In this effort, the Hungarians had the sympathies and verbal support of some individual statesmen in Great Britain, the United States, and Italy, but none of them possessed the political clout to change fundamental foreign policy in favor of Hungarian minority rights. Though Hungary did appreciate these individual efforts, ultimately it found itself in a situation in which great powers, whose support they would have welcomed, were typically unwilling to take an active interest, while those powers who proffered support were undesirable or dangerous. The author is assoc, prof, of history at the U. of Cincinnati. NO. 25, AUTUMN, 1980, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEW5LETTER The same issue of Nationalities Papers includes an article by Thaddeus Z. Gasinski on “The National Minority Policy of Today’s Yugoslavia,” (pp. 29-52) which contains statistics and statements in regard to the Hungarian minority of that land. □ Vincze, Lajos. “Women, Sex, and Herd in Peasant Pastoralism.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society, Louisville, Kentucky, 1980. 11 pages, mimeo. Women in pastoral societies seem to receive renewed interest under the contemporary revival of feminist concerns. The ethnographic data, at best, in this regard is scarce. The author proposes to correct the deficiency and is offering his own observations. He contrasts Hungarian and Romanian herding organizations and the role of women and sex in such organizations. He finds the role of the women highly restrictive, mainly because of functional causes. Milk is a highly valued economic commodity and herdsmen cannot risk its purity by letting “unclean” women handle it. Sex is considered harmful to the herd because it invites herdsmen to neglect their duties and cause a breach of contractual obligations. Superficially, the Romanian restrictions seem to be supported by magic-religious taboos, but historical research indicates that taboos were introduced to serve functional ends. G RESEARCH IN PROGRESS Bela Vassady Jr. (Elizabethtown Coll., PA 17022) is preparing two studies: one on “The Hungarian Immigrant Response to Michael Karolyi’s 1914 American Tour;” and one on “The Hungarian immigrants in Pennsylvania, 1890-1920.” (IHN) Q Stephen B. Vardy (Dept, of History, Duquesne U., Pittsburgh, PA 15219) is writing a book on Hungarian immigration to America forTwayne Publishers. (IHN) G Two Hungarian scholars were active at the Immigration History Research Center in St. Paul, MN; József Peter Gellen, lecturer in American literature at L. Kossuth U., who spent the entire 1979-80 academic year at the center. His interest is in ethnicity in American fiction 1950-1970. He is also interested in the history of European immigration, and gave a colloquium at the IHRC on A Systems Approach to Hungarian Emigration. The other scholar is Ilona Kovács of the Széchényi Library who worked from August 1979 to November 1979 on three projects: a biblio. of Hungarians in the US; cultural opportunities of Hungarians in the US; and library services to Hungarians in the US; and library services to Hungarians in the US. These projects are a continuation of research she began at Kent St. U. three years ago (Spectrum) Q MEETINGS The AMERICAN HUNGARIAN EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION held its fifth annual conference at the U. of Toronto, May 15-17, 1980. The opening session, ACADEMY AND COMMUNITY; SHARED INTERESTS AND RECOGNIZED DIFFERENCES, provided an opportunity for a roundtable discussion of the theme that was to run through the conference. Nándor Dreisziger (Royal Military Coll, of Canada) spoke of the relations between the academic and the ethnic communities, pointing out that, political affinities (Continued on Page 6) 5
