Liszka József (szerk.): Az Etnológiai Központ Évkönyve 2000-2001 - Acta Ethnologica Danubiana 2-3. (Dunaszerdahely-Komárom, 2001)

1. Tanulmányok - Botíková, Marta: Kulturális areák és etnikai határok

od between the two wars. Thematically it is usually not within the powers of one research worker to cover the whole scale of the particular culture and way of life. I concentrated on research into family life as in its complexity this area of research integrates numerous cultural phenomena. Although within the period investigated in both places there existed different variants of individual and complex family types, the prevailing forms, nevertheless, were complex - extended and multiple families, with a rare occurrence, or low number, of all-theyear-round servants in the household. In principle, the frequency of occurrence and the functioning of such families corresponded to the grain-growing ecotype of the Upper-Austrian Danube lowlands (Mitterauer 1992; Langer 1994; Botíková 1995). The families in both the ethnically differing villages were governed on the basis of an authoritative senioral and patriarchal principle. In spite of the above statement we have noted some differences. As to “patriarchality“ — in general there occurred only a few instances when in such a structural organization the woman-wife-(widow)-mother-housekeeper headed the household, and of these there were more in the Slovak village. A more detailed analysis of the above cases has shown that the woman gained such status in the families which did not rank among the rich ones. Of such farms there were more in Lisov. In the richer Šálov such instances did not occur. This difference can be accounted for by the statement that the possibility of the violation of patriarchality was conditioned by the economic situation of the family (Sigmundová, 1985,102).

One of the most exact manifestations of the present as well as the past functioning of the family is represented by family-related terminology. As it is directly connected with language and speech, it is the bearer of ethnic quality. When analyzing the manner of address from the point of view of seniority, we find that also in the structurally comparable Hungarian and Slovak families there was a differing “degree of politeness“ - of the younger family members with regard to the older ones, and of women with regard to men. In the Hungarian village the second and the third persons plural occurred much more often and lasted much longer than in the Slovak one. Here we certainly cannot refer only to the “linguistic structure“ of Hungarian family-related terminology, but have to consider also the values of the relationships which are reflected by family-related terminology, and which seem to be ethnically characteristic. Again, they distinguish the Hungarian more conservative (i.e. economically more powerful and richer) environment from the Slovak more democratic (i.e. economically less differentiated and poorer) environment on the example of family relationships.

In connection with the state of family structure in both locations there arose the need for the analysis of a demographic as well as socio-economic, and eventually also cultural phenomenon - that of restricted reproduction. In the period analyzed in both villages the families preferred to have only one, or at most two offspring. This resulted in a low population level which, nevertheless, was not negatively evaluated by the inhabitants themselves. On the contrary, they, e.g., often pointed out that also through “only one child“ there occurred a balance and fulfilment of the heritage rights of female and male offsprings. Such a population strategy was, both in Slovakia and in Hungary, relatively rare. A deeper analysis and research into the given sphere of problems leads to the conclusion that neither in this case does the above represent an ethnic determination, but rather a socio-economic or confessional one. Although the direction from which came the adoption of this phenomenon, or its source, could be considered (Filová, 1975), nevertheless, the “one-child family“ does not represent an ethnic difference between our two villages.

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