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

Játék és maszk. Dramatikus népszokások IV.

(p[ay andMasd IV. 885 the numerous other questions raised by customs and beliefs. Also, it is worth considering that particular customs must have acted under different forms and in different times, in accordance with the differing social and geographical circumstances. It may go without saying that a great degree of similarity can be observed among the dramadc customs and plays of peoples living in the Carpathian Basin. This fact presupposes the cultural relations among these neighboring peoples - especially in the context of Hungarian-Slavic and Hungarian—German ones. As far as relations and origins are concerned, in contrast with previous theories, I am trying to stress that the wandering of customs co-incides with the migration and seulement of peoples practising the mentioned customs. It is not tradition that wanders but those who preserve it and who may get to quite a distance from the original place, taking their culture with them. These are the components of cultural past and education whereby European peoples — that had had no direct relations — might have met each other. The material of Hungarian folk acting and dramatic customs is a good proof of their not having been poorer than those of their geographical surrounders. In fact, the Hungarians produced an independent- and a self-recovering tradition. Hungarian dramatic plays and masques do show; however, parallelisms with the customs of other European peoples. The similarities as well as the - sometimes surprising - analogies (as pointed out before) do not signify a formal mechanism of adopting and transmitting of cultural elements. They show the fact that Hungarians also joined the cultural circle which, in this context, too, meant an orientation towards the specific demands of „being a[n] European". This was a development, by way of necessity, in whose course the pre-Home Finding cultural elements were being enriched by newer and newer impulses. As a result of all these, a characteristically relevant genre of the Hungarian Folklore has come into being. Zoltán Ujváry