Szolyák Péter - Csengeri Piroska (szerk.): A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 56. (Miskolc, 2017)
Közlemények - Viga Gyula: A részben az egész: Balassa Iván regionális kutatásai Északkelet-Magyarországon
228 THE WHOLE IN ITS PARTS: THE REGIONAL RESEARCH OF IVÁN BALASSA IN NORTH EASTERN HUNGARY Keywords: Bodrogköz, Abaúj Hegyköz, Tokaj-Hegyalja, Sárospatak, myths, hill farming, viticulture, German settler villages The following essay is the text of presentation from a commemoration, which takes the results of Iván Balassa’s (1917—2002) research of north-eastern Hungary into account. The researcher of diverse interests was a defining personality of Hungarian ethnography in the second half of the 20th century. From director general of the Museum of Ethnography he became the head of the museum established in Sárospatak Castle (1956—1961). His vast knowledge and outstanding preparedness meant that he quickly and successfully became a major figure of Sárospataké cultural history, partaking in the discovery of historical topography and researching the region’s historical landscapes. He made significant results in getting to know the German (Swabian) communities that settled in Tokaj-Hegyalja during the 18th century, and mapping the changes in the culture they brought with themselves. Through historical and ethnographic research of agriculture in the Hegyköz of Abaúj county and its neighbouring villages — 22 settlement in total — he created the timeline for farming in mountain-range regions between the 16th and mid-20th century, up until the start of shared farming. He pointed out that although the southern part was impacted by effects that came with modernization (scythe harvesting, counting crops in garbs, etc.), it still retained its shared features with the Carpathian region (1964). Iván Balassa made significant accomplishments in the research of the Bodrogköz, an area bordered by the rivers Tisza—Bodrog—Latorca, which was a waterlogged swampy region before the river regulation in the second half of the 19th century, later torn in half after the Treaty of Trianon. He published a volume’s worth of material of the myths of Karcsa (1963), in which he described the settlement’s — and tangentially, the region’s — traditional belief system. He had separate studies for archaic forms of land use (fishing, herbalism, etc.) as well as for the region’s societal answers to social challenges (agrarian socialist movement, American emigration). The historical wine region of Tokaj-Hegyalja was Iván Balassa’s half-century long research topic, of which he not only wrote a comprehensive monograph (1991), but he also explored the history of the management, society and culture of wine-grower market towns. He put great emphasis in his works on the technique of grape production, wine types, and the lands outer economic and cultural ties. The research work conducted by Iván Balassa in this region fits in the context of the entirety of the Carpathian Basin; his questions and answers are internationally ingrained. His research results of the lands of north-eastern Hungary elevated the studying of rural traditions to the broader horizon of science. Gyula Viga
