Szőllősy Csilla - Pokrovenszki Krisztián (szerk.): Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis - Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. C. sorozat 44. (Székesfehérvár, 2016)

Tanulmányok/közlemények - Néprajz - Orosz György: "Csodálatos álmot láttam…" A Legszentebb istenszülő álam című nagyorosz egyházi népénekek a keresztény népi jámborságban és a magikus praktikákban

József Gelencsér

Cutting the hair as a punishment (customary law, written law, legal practice)

The interdisciplinary study overviews approx. 3,750 years to discuss whom, why, how and for what purpose were punished by cutting the hair based on customary law, written law and legal practice. The earliest times are represented by the laws of Hammurabi, the provisions of the Bible and German customary law. In Hungary, the regulations of the kings belonging to the House of Árpád also contained similar rules, as well as the decrees of the Habsburg dynasty. Examples are also present in the practice of the various traditional (feudalistic) courts.

In the 20th century, hair cutting was used in the Spanish Civil War, in the German concentration camps and in the soviet lagers mainly to shame, embarrass and differentiate people. The study includes the case of Miklós Radnóti (Hungarian poet), which case was not unusual during the World War II. The study also describes the hair cutting to bald after the war of the French and other women who collaborated with the Germans earlier. The procedures applied against the gipsy (roma) people and young men with long hair in Hungary are also reviewed, all of which differ from written law. Recently, the case of the community punishment used by the amish (a religious group in USA) has been tried by the supreme court. The hair cutting and the state of bald head are also a source of humour and also appear in art works.

Finally, the author gives a summary from legal history, legal folk and ethnography perspective, setting out also the procedure, changes, main stages and principles of hair cutting used as a sanction.

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