Fügedi Márta: Reprezentáns népcsoportok a 19-20. század fordulójának népművészet-képében (Miskolc, 2001)
SUMMARY
By discovering folk art, certain regions and ethnic groups and their culture were selected, and was forced into a special role, since they came to be influenced by processes deliberately organized and controlled from outside. The principles of selection were determined by the attitude of the intellectual movements detailed above. This is how an ethnic group and certain groups of objects could become the representative of an idea, the aesthetic standard, the embodiment of national values. Especially three regions were in the limelight and in this special field of activity Kalotaszeg, Matyóföld and Sárköz. They were not the same in cultures, differed in their special, spectacular material world and ornamental art, which was the result of the their different economic-historical development. Yet, the generation of the time hardly differentiated them, perceiving them as only the manifestation of the peasants' creative power, some sort of idealized value and beauty. The selection and growing of common knowledge of the three regions, the raising of the elements and values, suitable for the representative role, from the richness of the peasant culture is a long process influenced by a lot of effects. At the end of the 19 th century, „the popular movement" was looking for an idealized image of the Hungarian people. It was thought to be found in the folk art coming to be popular, or rather in the mediums of it. Thus certain ethnic groups and groups of objects meant more than themselves, they became the representatives of an idea, the determinant of the national character. It was not a historical or scientific principle that had directed the „selection" but it was just the other way round. The features fitting well in the image of the Hungarian people at the end of the 19 th century helped much in the selection. The general common factors of the splendid, spectacular and impressive image of the Hungarian people were as follows: - the „ethnic beauty" manifesting in the nice figure, strong and good features and healthy appearance; - the decorative, colourful, unique national costume, which is the „product" of the late flowering of the peasants' culture, but which is the manifestation of the „primeval fond of pomp" as interpreted in the 19 th century; - talent and variety in the different fields of the ornamental art, idealization of the local features of embroidery, weaving, woodcarving etc. as the manifestation of the „primeval instinct" of the people for decoration. This image of the Hungarian people had been built up of the elements of a single layer of the peasant culture of the elements of the so-called representative groups of objects" and of the elements of the traditions and the ceremonies. The noteworthy consequence of the course of selection is that the people of these regions „stepped out" of the traditional circumstances of life. The domestic craft, the developing tourism and the interest in the ethnographical research made the life of these regions more open. The attention focussed on them meant a certain „life on display" for them, yet they could still maintain their cultural cementing force, and, furthermore the new circumstances developed a more positive identity and a stronger local patriotism in them.
