Agria 42. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2006)

Knézy Judit: Városba költözött falusiak táplálkozási szokásainak változásai 1945–2002

Judit Knézy Variations in the Eating Habits of Townspeople who have settled from the Villages (1945-2002) By using research based on contacts between family members, some of whom have left their home villages, this paper focuses on changes in nutrition, kitchen technology, recipes and ingredients amongst the rural population of Somogy County in the post-war period. The Somogyi data has been complemented by data from the Zselic villages and flatland communities of Baranya County, partly to offer comparisons with other regions. Although changes did take place in the towns, albeit not at the same pace as in the villages, the townspeople and those in contact with the them were responsible for some developments. These contacts include not only those who commuted to the towns, or moved there completely, but those who regularly went home at the weekend either to help their family or who took some responsibility for the family members. The parents and grandparents who stayed in the village, who wanted their children and grandchildren to enjoy the benefits of the town, offered help whenever needed, providing them with fresh and preserved home produce, which would include fresh and smoked meat and eggs. Apart from combining the eating habits they brought from home with what they found in the town the younger generation living in the town encouraged their parents to keep house in a more upto-date way, eat more healthily, and become acquainted with some of the more modern conveniences etc. This study discusses this phenomenon in detail, paying special attention to those women who were famous in the village for their cooking, whose next of kin also became experts, and tried to make the most of what they had learnt at home, while being happy to adopt the eating habits from different regions and different countries to a greater degree than those who were less accomplished. The same thing happened in the case of men who knew how to cook. The fact that more women were engaged in full-time employment also contributed to the changes seen in both urban and rural nutrition. The acceptance of nutritional novelties occurred with less difficulty in both towns and villages among the younger generation than was the case with the older generations who only adopted them later. 80