Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1981 (9. évfolyam, 27-30. szám)

1981 / 27-28. szám

Hollos, Marida. “Ideology and Economics: Cooperative Organization and Attitudes Towards Collectivization in two Hungarian Communities." Paper presented at the 79th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C., December 1980.

“Collectivization of agriculture was an important feature of post-war economic development in Eastern Europe. It was brought about by economic as well as ideological considerations and followed a model adopted by the Soviet Union." The purpose of this paper is to examine behavioral and attitudinal changes brought about by the transformation. The two communities studied were Nagykoros and Tiszake'cske. According to the author, the data “shows that peasants, as other people, are basically pragmatists who are interested in a pay-off, in the economic support and betterment of their families. As long as this is possible solely through the increasing accumulation of land, private ownership becomes the cornerstone of peasant cultivation. However, when other forms and means of economic improvement are offered, even the more prosperous cultivators are willing to give up their independence in return for security and less responsibility. Peasant resistance to collectivization is not based on an irrational attachement to land ownership but on a rational calculation. Where sufficient economic gain is not forthcoming from collective work, ideological incentives are not sufficient to weigh against previous economic security.” The author is assist, prof, of anthropology at Brown U. □

Kecskés, Péter, ed. Regional Units of the Open Air Museum: Upper Tisza Region. A. Kurucz in behalf of the Ne'pművelési Propaganda Iroda. Szentendre, 1980. 82 pages, illus.

This English-language guide to the Open Air Museum at Szentendre (some 10 miles north of Budapest) describes the history and ethnography of Erdó'hat, a region in Szabolcs- Szatmar County. The history of the settlement goes back to the 12th through 14th centuries, when oak forests were cleared. Both, forests and swamps served to isolate the region, which consequently did not benefit from the economic boom brought about to western Hungary by the strong world wheat markets from the 18th century on. The region remained dependent mainly on orchards and animal husbandry. A large percentage of the population in the county were nobles (40% county-wide, up to 80% in some villages), who were not better off than the non-nobles. Conservative in its economics, the county was known for its opposition to Habsburg rule in the 19th century. Villages were generally built on small hills around a church. Medieval traditions were preserved both in the plan of the town and in the interior arrangement of the houses. In the 18th century, some of the nobles borrowed neoclassical touches from mansions. Wood and thatch were basic materials (they dominate the buildings in the open air museum) but dwellings were often plastered and whitewashed. Both, fireplaces and ovens were used, the latter often being built outside and possibly as a separate bake house. Furniture and household equipment was home-made, though some goods were bought at fairs from local craftsmen. The museum shows several houses: that of a poor peasant, that of a wealthier one, and that of a nobleman. In each case, entire plots have been reconstructed or re-built, so that the life of the region is presented as accurately as possible. A church, a belfry, and a dry mill complete the center of the village. A cemetery with distinctive graveposts preserves yet another tradition. (EMB) □

ARTICLES & PAPERS (Continued)

Pastor, Peter, “Resistance and Collaboration in Axis Hungary; The Political Emigration: The Hungarian Council in London.” Paper presented at the 1980 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, at Philadelphia.

The author defines resistance as “an underground movement in a country occupied by enemy forces.” Since formal German occupation of Hungary occurred only on March 19, 1944, no extensive armed resistance developed during the remaining months of World War II. The focus of the paper is on Hungarian emigre groups and their activities in Great Britain. Several Hungarian groups emerged in Great Britain during the war, such as Karolyi’s New Democratic Hungary, which advocated a pro-Slavic rather than a pro-German orientation for the postwar government of Hungary; The Hungarian Club, and the Free Hungarians of Great Britain. None of these groups drew official recognition from the British Government. In 1944, when the end of the war was in sight, the Hungarian Council in London was set up as an umbrella organization under the presidency of Ka'rolyi. Like the organizations which it incorporated, it failed to receive recognition from the British Government. After the Council failed to incite Hungarians in Hungary to rise up in resistance to the Germans, it dissolved itself on January 13, 1945.

The author is assoc, prof, of history at Montclair St. Coll.

□

Pléh, Csaba. “Sentence Interpretation Strategies and Dichotic Asymmetries in Hungarian Children between 3 and 6 years,” Report no. 5 of the Department of General Psychology, Eötvös Loránd U., June 1980. 14 pages, n.p. mimeo.

Psychologists and linguists have known for sometime that the word order in such languages as English and French has a marked influence on the interpretation (perception) of a sentence. The aim of the study was to ascertain whether the same is true for Hungarian speaking nursery-age children. Hungarian is a “free word order language” in which grammatical relations are marked by inflection (affixes) rather than by word order which in Hungarian is used for topicalization, focusing, emphasis, and contrast. The researcher gave 177 children two tasks: a sentence interpretation task and a dichotic test, the latter either following the first immediately or within two months. The findings indicated that word order has an influence on Hungarian speaking children, but to a lesser degree than on speakers of not inflected languages. The author is on the faculty of the Eötvös Lora'nd U. ^

Rajec, Elizabeth M. “The Influence of English and Pseudo- English on the Hungarian Language,” Geolinguistics, 6(1980)51-61.

Hungarian has borrowed or assimilated words from a variety of sources. Uralic elements still account for about three-quarters of the morphemes in use today, with Old Iranian and Turkish influences also evident. Slavic, Latin and German, however, have influenced Hungarian vocabulary most, while Greek, French, Italian and English have had only minor influence. English in particular is a late-comer, showing an influence only since the 17th century. The borrowings reflect the influence of Anglo-American civilization: parlament found in a 1612translation seemsto have been the first loan word. By 1820, about 90 English loan words were known, and by the end of the century, 400. Today there are approximately 1200.

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NO. 27-28, SPRING, 1981 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER