Fügedi Márta szerk.: B.-A.-Z. megye népművészete (Miskolc, 1997)

ANGOL NYELVŰ ÖSSZEFOGLALÁS Fügedi Márta

The Slovaks and the Ruthenians have preserved their ethnic and language independence more in those places where by way of their special occupation they occupied areas formerly unused by the Hungarians. From the middle of the 18th century the inner part of the Zempléni mountains and the higher regions of the Bükk were put to a new use. Glass production and its ancillary activities (wood-cutting, potash production) and the small scale iron industry of the Bükk mountains (with lime kilning and charcoal burning) attracted groups specialized in forest industries to this area. The ethnically diverse population of Tokaj-Hegyalj a and its surroundings was formed in a different way. In the complex agricultural production of the Hegyalja market towns grape, which represents high value in a limited area and concentrates considerable manpower because of its labour intensity, has been playing a special role since the 16th and 17th centuries. Wine growing and trading attracted people from several nations to Hegyalja. In the 17th and 18th centuries Greek (Balkan) merchants and after 1790 Jewish merchants in great numbers immigrating from Galicia dominated the sale of wine. The twelve market towns of the Hegyalja, which are concentrated in a small area, formed an economico-cultural block unique in the Carpathian basin. Tokaj, with its ford on the Tisza, which did not lose its importance for centuries, played a key role in trade. In cultural life the role of Sárospatak must be mentioned: the intellectual centre of the Northeastern Protestant community also gained this role in the environment of the market towns of Hegyalja. The villages of the German settlers in South Zemplén form a special cultural block at the edge of Tokaj Hegyalja. Their first groups were settled by Duke Trautsohn in his Sárospatak estate after 1750, followed by new families from the region of Schwarzwald between 1785-1790. Their culture only remained homogeneous in their closed communities. During the 19th century the Jewish middle class gained bigger and bigger ground in the towns and market towns but Jewish villagers also exerted a special cultural influence on their environment. In the 18th and 19th centuries gypsies appeared in growing numbers in the population censuses - their different groups specialized in different activities (musicians, metallurgists, blacksmiths, horse-dealers etc.) 2. The book presents the folk art products and the characteristics of the material culture of this varied county, so rich in traditions, in a complex way taking the historical connections, cultural trends and social background into account. The chapter entitled A tárgyalkotók és a tárgyhasználók 'Makers and users of articles' is based on the social layers and economic factors which characterized the subtle relations of production, goods manufacturing and use in this region in the past centuries. From among the characteristics of the development of handicraft the decisive role of economic geographical factors and the exchange of goods between the big regions of different nature need to be highlighted. In the markets and fairs of the great many market towns the raw materials of the highlands and the agricultural products of the Great Plain were continuously sold and exchanged. The relatively high density