Tóth Ferenc szerk.: Fiatal Néprajzkutatók Országos Konferenciája. Makó, 1991. augusztus 26-28. A Makói Múzeum Füzetei 75. (Makó, 1993)

KUTATÁSI BESZÁMOLÓK - DEÁKY ZITA: A bába a magyar népi társadalomban a XVIII-XIX. század elején

I Szenti Tibor a dél-alföldi szexuális bűnperek kutatásakor felfigyelt a bábák gyakori és sokrétű szerepére. Az ő adatait is felhasználtam a bábák tevékenységi körének meghatározásánál. Szívességét ezúton is köszönöm. ABSTRACT THE MIDWIFE IN HUNGARIAN FOLK SOCIETY IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES Zita Deáky The paper outlines the aims and perspectives of the research. Earlier ethnographic studies discussed the activity of midwives out of context or as of marginal importance. It has to be underlined, however, that midwifery was the first institutionalized (trained, paid, and placed under state-control) occupation for women although midwives varied in their training and work. Because of the confrontation between institutionalized midwife-training and their own traditional culture, the midwives accumulated a unique scope of knowledge which made them participants in a culture-mediating process on the one hand, and fundamentally determined their situation and assimilation in the community in which they were working on the other. Consequently, it is desirable to conduct a complex historical research on the occupation confronting the above described problems with aspects of relevant social sciences (ethnography, medical history, and archival studies). 154