Ujváry Zoltán: Kultusz, színjáték, hiedelem (Miskolc, 2007)

Játék és maszk. Dramatikus népszokások IV.

(Píay and Mask W. 879 (p[ay andUvLask^ 'Dramatic To [(^Customs The aim of my work is to survey the Hungarian masqueingand dramatic folk-customs. This description is bound to offer a synthesis summarizing the results — achieved so far in this theme - of Hungarian and European ethnographies. I have undertaken neither the task of a thorough analysis of the material, nor that of enumerating it in detail; this had already appeared in my earlier works. It is the results and investigations of these earlier analyses that I attempt to summarize in this volume. My deliberate goal here is to put all these into a larger context: that of interethnic relationships of European peoples. Even in the field of terminology, earlier researches had shown the inconsistency that had been dominant in Folklore Studies in connection with this genre. As a result of manifold approaches and of the twilight of the longstanding hegemony of religious-dramatic, customary tradition and - last, but not least — by way of material gathered in the recent decades, it has become evident that the sphere of these folk-traditions has always been very widespread, and that it has revealed a close relationship among numerous other layers of Folklore. AH these facts — as contrasted to earlier findings — pointed towards new demands concerning new research methods. It had to be realized - to say the least — that no categories of professional theater should unchangedly be applied to the dramatic performances of the Folk Tradition. Similarly, a simple, evolutionist theory of and approach to the origins of folk-acting proved not to be right - if they were deducted only from Ancient Magic and Rituals. We can be sure that the study of folk acting absolutely requires a complex method involving the investigation of the whole répertoire (very different genres, rituals and scenes). One of the basic questions raised by the research of dramatic and masqueing performances is their grouping. More accurately, we have to define the attributes that we can regard to be of determining importance, as far as orientation in and registration of the material is concerned. Following this track, special play-types and masques [as a genre] come to the forefront: independendy of the very occasion they are tied to. This is so, because investigations of this kind unanimously show that individual masks (and play-types) can be well differentiated from the customary occassions at which they are performed. This is especially the case with Animal-Masks. They have lost their traditional site specifically set for them; they have become independent of their actual place, time and occasion. Such is the case with „anthropomorphic" figures which, just like some animal masks, represent different types of genre-behavior. The investigation of customary folkacting and masqueing — in accordance with their characteristically typological figures — leads to two suppositions. It is not only easier to survey the entirety of the Hungarian tradition, but it is also possible to compare it with the dramatic habits of the Carpathian Basin (in particular) and with the same sorts of other European peoples (in general). A complex study of folk-acting demands that we pay special attention to the occasions when they were being played. That must be so, because — in many of these cases — they came to be interrelated. Sometimes the same custom - which is to say: the same occassional folk-play - is attached to traditional occassions of the Calendar Year, to ancient ones of social life. Especially rich traditions — as periods go — are provided by the Carnival-Festivales (around February) and the set X-mas and New Year-ones. As far as communal work and get-togethers are concerned [for instance: common spinning, harvesting, vintage and the traditional killing of the home-pig the last: in the dead of Winter] there are events that abound in masque-like traditions. In the same way - depending on time and place - Wedding Ceremonies may fall into this category, too. In the course of investigating dramatic plays, almost no single exception allows us to ignore the references to Rituals and Ancient Cults. The route leading from Rituals to Play-Acting had obviously been long. It is even difficult to trace them from phase-to-phase. Even so, researchers seem to have agreed in that DRAMA and ACTING [including our topic: Folk-Acting] must have had some common roots of original Cults. Masque-theories rely — more or less - on the same premise. The common opinion seems to be that it is the rituals, with whose help Man tries to obtain some superior power, that provide the once-again gained background of the Masque. In the actual tradition of Hungarian and European peasantry, these relations can most easily be followed in the sphere of agriculture, in „agro-magic". The rituals themselves — in the course of centuries, or, even, millennia — have been radically changed. But even the most radically changed ones preserve basic, original elements. Hungarian Folk-Acting had to undergo formal changes — quite often in opposition to its original function - but it seems to have preserved the abovementioned, „original" elements, quite a bulk of them. Plays already changed produced newer