Cseri Miklós: Néprajz és muzeológia, Tanulmányok a népi építészet és a múzeumi etnográfia köréből (Studia Folkloristica et Ethnographica 51. Debrecen ,Szentendre, Debreceni Egyetem Néprajzi Tanszék, 2009)

TELEPÜLÉS - ÉPÍTÉSZET - LAKÁSKULTÚRA - ETHNOGRAPHY AND MUSEOLOGY STUDIES IN FOLK ARCHITECTURE AND MUSEOLOGICAL ETHNOGRAPHY

Finally, beyond the role and function of stone in the overall matter of construction, we also need to emphasize that the various ways of treating stone, including the excavation, digging, cutting, or blasting of stone, and even trading in stone, constituted one of the "cultural responses" that the people living in the mountains gave to the "cultural challenge" arising from the ecological conditions of their immediate surroundings in order to ensure their survival or sustenance. THE CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF ARCHITECTURE BY PETTY' NOBILITY IN THE NORTHEASTERN REGION OF THE CARPATHIAN BASIN The relationship between the orders of nobility and peasantry has been a recurring topic in our history, covering quite a few centuries. On the basis of our social development, cultural stratification, and traditions, from the aspect of ethnography and the research of folk society, special attention should be paid out of this to the exploration of the way of life of petty nobility. The culture of the villages populated by the representatives of petty nobility in the regions of Torna, the Sajó Valley, Medvesalja, the Száraz Valley, North-H«w County, Nógrád County' or, a little bit further east in the counties of Szatmár, Bereg, or the Nyírség area has been rendered special for the ethnographical researchers primarily by the legal prerogatives, the conscience of family background, the special mentality', and the financial position of the petty- nobility. It has been made clear from the data collected that, by the middle of the 19

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h century, the so-called kisnemesi-kurialista [country-seat style of the petty nobility'] architecture parallel with the integration of petty' nobility into peasant society - had gradually lost its innovative impulses. Following the abolition of serfdom, with the disappearcnce of feudal commitments and with the strengthening of the processes of financial improvement and the establishment of middle-class values, it was mostly layers of the wealthier peasants that became the formative influence on the architecture of provincial Hungary. At this point in time, the kisnemesi-kurialista architecture chiefly influenced the transition through its status of a prefiguration and its role of a mediator. The questions of how this transition or transmission was carried out and what kind of factors were used to help the dissemination of new architectural elements among the peasants, or in what specific way(s) the architecture of the petty nobility' enriched the world of peasant architecture in the northern region, are the most important focal points in the future directions of my research. RESULTS AND TASKS IN RESEARCHING THE FOLK ARCHITECTURE OF BORSOD-ABAÚJ-ZEMPLÉN COUNTY Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County is fairly diverse in its geography as well as in its folk and popular culture. The variety' of natural environments present here (plain areas, mountains, river valleys, highlands or plateaux surrounded by hills) sometimes provided radically differing conditions for peasant life. The people living in the relatively closed Bodrogköz region, for example, adapted to the geographical and natural conditions in a completely different way than the population of the Hegyalja area did, who opted for the monocultural cultivation of grapes at a relatively early stage. The material culture of villages populated by the petty' nobility in the Gömör region in some cases can be strikingly different at the first sight from that of villages with poorer residents or serfs in the south of Borsod County. Apart from the differing geographical, economic, and public administrational conditions, sometimes a combination of historical and public administrational factors could (and did) 410