Agria 43. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2007)

Gulyás Éva: Falucsúfolók a Jásznagykunságban és környékén

Éva Gulyás Village Mockery In and Around the Jászkunság The origins of village mockery are buried deep in the human psyche. It is the environment to which people have become accustomed, the traditions and customs they have inherited from their forebears, that are considered natural. Everything that deviates from the norm, however, is somehow thought to be strange and incomprehensible. Peoples, different ethnic groups, paid attention to the customs of the neighbouring populations right from the earliest of times, invariably finding them odd, even amusing, to the extent of becoming the butt of jokes. This study focuses on village mockery in the Jászkunság region and beyond. While we fail to touch on the Kiskunság, we do nevertheless cover all the other regions in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County, the Tiszazug, Szolnok and environs and the small villages bordering the Tisza to the north, as well as the town of Tiszafüred. We also have examples from beyond the county border (in neighbouring Békés, Hajdú-Bihar, Heves and Pest counties, for instance). It was our aim to detect in the villages of the Jászság, the Nagykunság and the Tisza communities any ethnic characteristics evident in such mockery, and to see how this was manifested by the Jazygians (Hung.: jászok) and the Cumans (Hung.: kunok) in relation to one another and indeed themselves. We were particularly interested in the way mockery expressed itself in folk humour. 373