Kunt Ernő szerk.: Kép-hagyomány – Nép-hagyomány (Miskolc, 1990)
III. RÉSZ: A KONFERENCIA SAJTÓVISSZHANGJA
purpose of discussions among experts consisted in unifying the major concepts connected with the study of pictures and comparison of various research methods. The notion of "picture" included broadsides, engravings, book illustrations, sculptures, hand colored woodcuts, photographs, and so forth. At.the same time, the question was raised on the necessity to conduct a comparative and deep-reaching analysis of the diverse levels of theoretical conclusions drawn by ethnographers from various countries. Thirty-four scholars from fourteen European countries including Hungary, the GDR, Bulgaria, Romania, the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, West Berlin, Spain, Norway, the FRG, and Sweden participated in the symposium. R. Kvideland (Norway), President of SIEF (since 1987), greeted the participants at the opening ceremony and noted a regular occurrence of international events within the framework of the SIEF activities. Presentations directly connected with the aspects of visual material ethnographic research made up the core of the symposium's scientific program. Primarily, they include the paper by N.-A. Bringeus (Sweden), in which the picture was used as a historic source. Bringeus noted that the book by Amos Comenius, published in Germany in 1658, contained 152 engravings incorporating a wide spectrum of scenes of peasants' labor, and was considered of great importance in Sweden and other European countries. Many Swedish pictures were created by analogy and were most closely connected with the peasants' labor calendar and yearly cycle of agricultural work. The paper "Pictures as a Source of Folklore Continuity" by S. Kovachevichova (Czechoslovakia) was distinguished by similarly abundant factual material. The scholar's main aim was to show a historic development of folklore in Slovakia with the help of nearly ten thousand images, to determine the interrelation between folk culture and various social strata; the role and value of the historical-ethnographic method; and the symbolism of visual sources of different kinds. Long-term research made it possible to analyze transformation of general European images in Slovakia's folk culture from a historical and ethnographic point of view rather than from an aesthetic viewpoint as was previously the case. W. Bruckner (FRG), made an excursus into the distant past, analyzing crusades against peasants in the thirteenth century. Using abundant graphic material, he made an attempt to unveil the ideological motives behind their persecution by the church. Pictures of that period were presented as accusatory documents. Other symposium presentations described pictures illustrating peasants' everyday life, as well as customs and rites. Comparative analysis of symbolic images in peasants' objects of everyday life —earthenware, furniture, wedding trunks, and so on —made it possible for K. Chillery (Hungary), to come to an important conclusion in her presentation "Data About Interpretation and Function of Pictures Among Hungarian Peasants." She described the way the peasants interpreted pictures in contrast to the mostly forced manner in which symbols are explained among those who made the objects, and gave the interpretation of the peasants who used them. In Hungary, it was natural to place pictures of saints in the holy corner above the table, but among Calvinists, portraits and scenes of political heroes and even moral quotations on paper or textile were placed in that corner. When,
