Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 23 (1978) (Pécs, 1979)

Néprajztudomány - Cseh István: Társadalomnéprajzi vizsgálatok a szlavóniai magyarok körében

300 CSEH ISTVÁN Socioethnographic Study of the Slavonian Hungarians ISTVÁN CSEH The marks of the many-century culture of the Slavonian Presbyterian Hungarians had been living up of the latest times and this was also helped by the geographical setting of four Hungarian villages: Kórógy, Szentlászló, Haraszti and Rétfalu. Among these the most tradition-keeping is Kórógy. Here is most vivid in the memories of old people that form of family cohabitaion or „extended family" in which more gegerations and within them more nuclear families lived in one house and in one household, cultivated the same land under the guidance of the master (paterfamilias). The nuclear families' leaders were the brothers or cousins; the master was — in most cases — the eldest member of the family-cummunity. His authority was won not only by his age but by his experience is farming as well. The Haraszti practice is partly different, where in general the younger brother was the master. The land was on his name as well, but he couldn't dispose of it freely because it was in the ownership of the extended family and after his death it went to the new mester's name. He was on top of family hierarchy where the members were connected by blood relationship and matrimonial connections. The memory of this type of family had been kept by the customs is the order of farming, the habits in the family gatherings, the building style etc. At many place still we can find the sleeping compartments built to theend of the family house, wich had been the bedrooms of the young couples. Together with this family structure certain order in social connections and family relations had been kept: moral order, customary law etc. wich controlled community coexistence and contact-making possibilities of young people as well. One can discover many signs in the order of farming, in the habits of family gatherings and church rituals which are reminders of the ancient clan relations. The economic and social changes of the last century ended the still-living importance of the clan and the extended family was broken off. Most of the old human relations are still kept by the old people. Under these circumstances young people found new forms to keep up the feeling of relation.