Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 14-15 (1969-70) (Pécs, 1974)

Néprajztudomány - Csalog, Zs.–Mándoki, L.: Phenomen of the Fashion in the Hungarian Rural Christian Namint. (Ethnolinguistical Study)

FASHION IN THE HUNGARIAN RURAL CHRISTIAN NAMING 325 Kroeber (for example the short (mini) skirt but he investigated the characteristics of the symptoms (as e. g. the changes of the length of skirt) independent of categories. It is like if we are looking for the change of the frequency of single vowels in the Christian names (there were already examples for is): the tendencies naturally may be registered by it too, the obtained curves are however different and they are not the graphic projection of fashion. The change in the material of Christian names allows a wide insight into the cultural life of the community. The individual belonging to the community points out unintentionally his relation to the community by the choice of his child's name: he imitates a tradition on different stage, obeys custom-norms — or he chooses just a new Christian name, unknown to the community till this time: partly to demonstrate his separation — the araising of novelty sounds all the same as a proposal from the standpoint of the community. Such impulses happen to the community with an almost uninterrupted continuity, most of these proposals are rejected — these names remain as individual phenomena, episodes in the history of the community or they are adopted, reproduced, made communal and fashionable by it. It is extremely instructive to examine this movement together with the social stratification of the community. Who are the proposers, bringing the community to novelty, to enrichment? This problematic, under the head-word ,

gesunkenes Kulturgut" keeps the ethnographic theory discussing since Naumann, exact researches however was carried out by nobody in our country according to our knowledge up to now in order to get an objective answer. The social distribution of the initiatives (without reaction and with continuation) are in Ordas (county Bács-Kiskun, a continuous Calvinist serfvillage) in the second half of the XIX. century as follows: the 5% stratum of the „people wearing trousers" (the intellectuals living in villages) gives 44%, ninefold of the mathematically prospective value : the class of workers and craftsmen of 8.6% presents 22%, (two and halffold value) and from the peasantry of 86.4% comes only exactly the one third of the initiatives. At the first half of this century there is already another situation, reflecting the change oi the aspect of the peasant class, only 23% of the initiatives derives from the „people wearing trousers" (3.7%, sixfold of the expected) 11% comes from the craftsmen- workers class (it is smaller than the expectable value 19%, on the basis of the real proportion) and 65.4% falls to the peassantry of 77 percentage. At the same time analysing the composition of those preserving the old, already vanishing Christian names, we find 92.4% peasants between the years 1850—1899 (the other are craftsmen) during the first half of this century it falls a value of 100% to the peasantry. Similar values were measured by me in the material of Zalakoppány too. The picture is less eoiitrasty in Visonta (a bigger village belonging to the domain, monocultured early) in the county Heves; the „gentlefolks" stratum has a share of 17,2—13,2—10,6% in the initiatives during the first and second part of the last century and in the first half of this century, the share of the peasantry (and agrarproletariat) however is about 70% during the researched peroid. But also here the 100% of those devoted to the old, vanishing names in the second part of the 19 century, yet 83,3% in the first part of this century are the peasants respectively agrarproletariat. The measuring in Visonta looks like contradict to the former results — the data of the village Halmaj neighbouring to Visonta however, stand again nearer to the example of Ordas and Zalakoppány mainly by the high share .of the craftsmen class (32% in the second half of the last century). It was told me by my publicators of data in Istenmezeje in the county Heves that all fashions arrived to their village during the time of generation on the customary route of Pétervására—Erdőkövesd—Váraszó—Istenmeze j e, retarding and loosing time in all stations. An extremely interesting light is thrown on each communitv by the time and postponement of adoption of the namefashion extending to the whole country or part of the country. The running down of a fashion name Julianna (Julia) in the different places of our researches are given by our graph, showing the historical course, pointing out the presumable route of the tendency of fashion as follows: Zalakoppány, Siklós, Szentes, Ordas (a conservative little village getting therefore the fashion only after Szentes), at last the real fashion of Julianna could not develop in county Heves at all. By the progress of our work we look forward to be able to clear up the main fashion-epicentrums of the Hungarian language territory and to map the concentric isophase-lines, isonimes indicating the typical phase-steps. Beside the fashion names, the fashion of namingcustoms may be studied — with reference to the previous ethnolinguistic conference, and the lines of Some themes by Miklós Kovalovszky

— the proportion of the bearer of the two more Christian names appears namely by regions, religions and ethnocultural groups differently. For