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

The main analysis of the material concentrated upon the varied activities and relationships in the agricultural economy, the household, the family and the community. From the point of view of effectively processing the data I considered three basic activity and relationship spheres - work, family, community, which are all surrounded by or penetrated by the sphere of customs, situations and activities. I have been searching for differences, e.g. within the gender aspect of family, because the production activities, and economic activities in general, have a very marked gender-based division of labour. Wherever the border was placed, it turned out that it was more often the woman than the man who was forced to overstep her “boundary“, whether in a Slovak or in a Hungarian village. Household work in both villages was within the domain of women. Here, as generally known, differentiation occurred with regard to age and status - the roles and the status of the housekeeper were more prestigious than those of the daughter-in-law (the younger the latter was, the worse her position proved to be).

The culture of customs, which is related to other spheres of activity, is more distinctly determined by the socio-economic model of the community than by ethnicity. The Slovak as well as the Hungarian peasant had in mind the same economic achievements and the ways of arriving at them. In a geographically neighbouring environment the same activities fell on the same calendar days (e.g. the shepherds rounds (pre-Christmas shepherds' visits in the village households), the driving-out of cattle). It would be too great a simplification to claim that both the Slovak and the Hungarian yearly customs on the ethnic boundaries were identical. Probably to some customs they ascribed greater and to others less importance. Šálov was a larger village, more farmers had more cattle which they drove out into the joint herd for grazing. Then also the shepherd's pre-Christmas round, connected with his offering wishes, was understood by the community as a more important event than in Lisov, where the herd was smaller. Even the ceremonies of the family cycle did not manifest such a difference; they were, so to speak, a “translation“. Within the ceremonial culture the basic difference which I managed to find the linguistic.

The religious difference between the two protestant denominations was in the church ceremony, or in the details of the seating in church. As already stated, in both places at the same time there was practised the system of restricted reproduction which is usually considered by research workers to be connected with Protestant communities. I do not agree with such an interpretation of causality; however, I consider the meaning of religious affiliation to be important, in harmony with the other above-stated factors. The values of the Protestant farmer (regardless of ethnicity) were undoubtedly noteworthy. For some time the one-childfamily tradition brought wealth, and the wealth was to be outwardly manifested. It is not surprising, e.g., that from both villages we have records in parish chronicles and other written documents in which the local priests show indignation over the lack of modesty of their parishioners (more specifically the females) in dressing. It was generally characteristic of the one-child-family regions that the female, and even more so the girls* dresses, in terms of their material, decorative qualities, jewellery and accessories, constituted a showcase of family wealth, again without any ethnic difference.

How is it possible that I have found so few cultural (ethnic?) differences? Could this mean that the phenomena and themes to be analysed were not correctly chosen? Though this is possible, the problem lies elsewhere. Naturally, also in this “everyday“ culture in both its activities and relationships differences were found, these being determined economically and

81