Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1980 (8. évfolyam, 23-26. szám)

1980 / 23-24. szám

porary scientist - historians perform the role of masons erecting the base of the mythical national monument.”

In his third paper, The Rumanian National Mystery: Myth- Making in Everyday Life (to be published soon in Crossroads), the author develops his thesis further, investigating how the power center enlists the support and cooperation of millions in the mythologization process. The author presents scores of examples and methods used in the reinterpretation of Transylvanian history. □

Papp-Zubrits, Susan, “Oral History Sources’ CollectiomThe Brantford Hungarian Mutual Benefit Society,” “Polyphony; The Bulletin of the Multi-cultural History Society of Ontario,

2:1 (Winter 1979) 57-64.

The Brantford Hungarian Mutual Benefit Society is the oldest such fraternal society in Canada. Organized in 1913 to provide assistance in times of illness and to help with burial expenses of its members, its activities included social events. The Toronto chapter in particular has been active in theatrical performances, and it helped to organize the Catholic Circle and to build and establish St. Elizabeth of Hungary Roman Catholic Church. The historical introduction of the essay is followed by an interview with Joseph Jager, president of the Toronto chapter, who immigrated to Canada in 1928. He said the theatricals were performed to keep the Hungarian cultural contacts more than for profit. The income was spent for the common good, like acquiring the church, helping refugees, sponsoring a football team, etc. Most of the activities ceased in the latter 1950s when the original members grew too old to continue doing the bulk of the volunteer work.

Polyphony is devoted to publishing information on ethnic groups in Canada. Subscription is $5 annually, and should be sent to MULTICULTURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF ONTARIO, 43 Queen’s Park, Crescent East, Toronto M5S 2C3.

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Dreisziger, N. Fred, “Watson Kirkconnell and the Cultural Credibility Gap between Immigrants and the Native-Born in Canada," in Ethnic Canadians: Culture and Education, ed. Martin L. Kovács. Regina, Canadian Plains Research Center, U. of Regina, 1978, pp. 87-96.

During his remarkable career, Kirkconnell (1896-1977) had been involved in teaching, university administration, scholarly writing, translation of poetry, and political pamphleteering. One of the lesser known of his activities was his work in behalf of Canada’s immigrants. Since the immigrants who came between the late 1890s and the Great Depression were predominantly agricultural workers with little education, the impression was created in Canada that these were members of culturally inferior ethnic groups. Kirkconnell tried to generate respect for European cultures, and a firm belief in the intellectual potential of these new Canadians. He became one of the most dedicated and effective spokesmen that immigrants in Canada ever had. He also advanced the theory of Canadian multiculturalism which foreshadowed the multiculturalist policies of the 1970s. □

Beck, Sam. Review: The Romanians of Saskatchewan: Four Generations of Adaptation. National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Canadian Centre for Folk Cultural Studies, Paper No. 23. By G. James Patterson. (Ottowa: National Museum of Canada, 1977. Pp. v - 85, photos, maps, biblio., abstracts in English and French. Gratis.) In Journal of American Folklore 92:366 (October-December 1979) pp. 486-NO. 23-24, SPRING, 1980, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS

Horvath, J(eno) E. GALLYPOTTS AND GALLYWARE; An

Annotated Catalogue of an Exhibition of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century English Delftware. Victoria, Fall 1979. Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1040 Moss Street, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8V 4P1, 54 pages, illus. N.p.

“The small Dutch town of Delft, an important manufacturing centre for tin-glazed ceramics, hasgiven its name to this type of ware in the same way that the word ‘china’ is used for porcelain-type ware.” Tin-glazed ceramics have been manufactured from Hungary to the British Isles mainly by craftsmen moving about to avoid persecution for their religious beliefs. “In Moravia and Northern Hungary the Hutterites produced some of the finest maiolica Europe has ever known outside of Italy.” This publication concentrates on English delft, and we would like to hope that Horvath will address his excellent talents to arrange a similar exhibit of Hungarian ceramics.

THE IMMIGRANT IN AMERICA is a major microfilm collection in the making. Coordinated by A. William Hoglund, U. of Connecticut, it will cover the fields of immigration history and ethnic studies up to 1929. The content of the collection will be drawn from holdings of major research collections. For further information contact Paul Ferster, Director of Marketing Research Publications, Inc., 12 Lunar Drive, Wood bridge, CT 06525. □

Sumerologists who believe there is a close relationship between the ancient Sumerians and proto-Hungarians received new hopes from the finds of recent excavations at Ebla, according to Ida Bobula’s article in the Értesítő', a Hungarian periodical published in Adelaide, Australia (Vol. 12, Oct., 1979, pp. 15-16). Ebla, a community southwest of Aleppo in ancient Syria was allegedly built by Sumerians at about 3500 B.C. It perished under the conquest of Naram-Sin, chief of the Akkadians at about 2250 B.C. In 1975 archaeologists, under the leadership of Paolo Matthiae of the U. of Rome, found the royal archives containing over 15,000 cuneiform tablets written mostly in the Sumerian language. Their deciphering is still in progress. Hopes are high that the tablets will ultimately enlighten us about several passages of the Bible, now dimly understood, and about the more recent history of the Sumerian which may hold some information on Hungarian-Sumerian relationships. For details see also Howard LaFay’s article Ebla Splendor of an Unknown Empire in National Geographic 154:6 (December 1978) pp. 730- 759. □

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490.

The author considers Pattersons’s paper a “preliminary survey” based on a summer’s fieldwork in Saskatchewan. He assigns importance to the paper because “ethnicity in Romania continues to have important political, economic, and ideological consequences which often have placed the various ethnic groups into hostile opposition.” He feels that the 50-page text, which includes eleven life histories of Romanian speaking Romanians, treats some of the historical background and some aspects of the frame of reference with undue superficiality. In his review the author offers a good measure of information on both, Romanian ethnics in North America, and on the ethnic problems of Romania proper.

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