Barna Gábor szerk.: Társadalom, kultúra, természet. Tanulmányok a 60 éves Bellon Tibor tiszteletére – A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok közleményei 57. (2001)

A Jászkunság műveltsége és társadalma - Barna Gábor: Kunszentmárton és a Nagykunság. Kulturális alkalmazkodás és a mezővárosi kultúra

Kunszentmárton és a Nagykunság 49 Gábor Barna KUNSZENTMÁRTON AND NAGYKUNSÁG: Cultural Adaptation and the Culture of a Market-town The town of Kunszentmárton is culturally not considered to be part of the mostly Protestant Nagykunság region because of the Catholics who settled in from Jászapáti in the beginning of the 18

lh century. Although Nagykunság itself can't be considered as a culturally homogeneous unit either. The inhabitants of the towns of Nagykunság, including those of Kunszentmárton, are the bearers of such a market-town culture which is hard to characterize because most of the cultural manifestations typically mark a larger geographical area rather than a city. In this regard the study is based on the Ethnographical Atlas of Szolnok County (Szolnok Megyei Néprajzi Atlasz). In this uniqueness every market-town of Nagykunság presented a particular case. Between 1745 to 1876 the similar social status was the main cementing force. The basic cultural layer is a lowland-like culture which was supplemented with historic, geographical, economical and religious factors. The development of bourgeois mentality, which took place in every settlement of Nagykunság after the disintegration of this region at the end of the 19

lh century, was more or less the same with different intensity. According to the above Kunszentmárton can't be left out of the ethnological analysis'. Its peculiar features could not only bring forth local results but bring us closer to the fuller understanding of the cultural processes in the Nagykunság region.