Kothencz Kelemen (szerk.): Migráció és hagyomány-formálódás a történeti Duna-Tisza közi nemzetiségek népéletében - Bajai dolgozatok 22. (Baja, 2018)

Kürti László: "Se nem jászok, se nem kunok - magyarok". Kulturális hatások és kapcsolatok a Felső-Kiskunságban a XIX-XX. században

László Kürti

“Not Jazigians, not Cumanians, but Hungarians”

Problems of identity in the Jászkunság Region

This chapter introduces the complex nature of identity mechanism that characterizes the Kiskunság region of Hungary. This historic-ethnographic terrain has been known for its protestant Cumanian inhabitants, who are - we must declare - not identical with the original Cumanians who settled to Hungary in the late 13th century. Yet, since the Redemptio of 1745 (when they were able to buy back their original settlements from the Habsburgs), the territory saw several waves of migration by both the old settlers as well as newcomers. Questions who is a Cuman, and who is entitled to own land, and who the migrants are have been raised numerously both by scholars and inhabitants of the region. This analysis reveals some of the difficulties and problems connected to Cuman/non-Cuman and Hungarian identities, an issue paralleling that of the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina.

[Translated by the author]