Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 11. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1997)

Angol rezümé

Györgyi H. CSUKÁS-Péter KECSKÉS FOLK ARCHITECTURE IN KIDE AND THE BORSA VALLEY Up to the 1920s the small villages lying in the valley of the brook Borsa, northwest of Kolozsvár (Cluj, Klausenburg), had escaped the attention of research workers interested in local history and the social sciences. The significance of the Hungarian villages of this region, alternately belonging to Szolnok-Doboka and Kolozs Counties, became apparent when in came to light that undisturbed 12—15th century cultural and sacral relics could be studied there, and they were places, suitable in every respect, for examining the Hungarian-Romanian nationality question. The hilly area, which suffered comparatively little by medieval wars, was also spared by industrialization. The Hungarian and Romanian population, working in the traditional system of independent subsistence farming (growing grain crops in their fields and keeping animals in cow-houses and stables) coexisted for centuries in integral communities in the villages to which little arable land belonged. The interest taken by the „Transylvanian youths" in sociography and the financial assistance of the landowner. Baron Ferenc Bánffy, made it possible to start in Kolozsborsa and its vicinity the detailed survey of data applying the methods of Dimitrie GUSTI (1880-1955). Part of the material was published by Imre MIKÓ (1911-1977) who dealt with the historical connections of Transylvanian villages and the nationality question, and gave a sketch of their future. The book, which appeared in 1932, had a defining influence on later research into the history of ethnic groups and sociology aimed at self-knowledge through its manifold angles of investigation and the authenticity of its data. The investigation, on the other hand, fitted in efficiently with the „deep-boring" studies of village-life in the Great Hungarian Plain and Transdanubia. In the autumn of 1940 the Scientific Institute of Transylvania (Erdélyi Tudományos Intézet) was founded in Kolozsvár. This gave fresh impetus to research in the Borsa Valley. In the Departments for Ethnography, Archaeology, History, Linguistics, Literature, Geography and Anthropology Transylvanian researchers and undergraduates worked. Researchers from Hungary, too, took part in the work as of the autumn of 1941 as the SIT had become part of the „Teleki Pál" Scientific Institute (Teleki Pál Tudományos Intézet) of Budapest. The tasks of the Institute, which operated until the spring of 1945, included research not only on the historical and recent materials concerning the Hungarian people but also those relating to Hungarian-Romanian cultural relations and the Romanian people. The Institute had a yearbook and also published a series of books entitled „Borsavölgyi kutatások" (Researches in the Borsa Valley). Researches in the Borsa Valley and the publication of their results provided opportunities to experiment with new methods, to prepare works of monographic aspirations, and to carry out comprehensive investigations for the representatives of many branches of science. Field-work was mainly done in four points of research: Bádok (Bädesti), Csomafája (Ciumafaia), Kide (Chidea) and Kolozsborsa (Borsa). The greater field of research included ten more points within the triangle of Válaszút (Raseruci), Bodonkút (Vechea) and Nagyesküllő (Aschileu Mare). The name Borsa Valley does not designate an ethnographic group or an unbroken, homogeneous cultural region. It is a geographic name for the area bordering on Kalotaszeg, Mezőség and Szilágyság. The territory is important as the provenance of several closed and published books and studies, the gold mine of a lot of material still in manuscript or in the form of notes, and as a field where further investigations can be conducted or research, already commenced, brought to a conclusion. From the publications - without aiming at completeness or at establishing an order of merit - let us invite attention to the following. István MÉRI (1911-1976) elaborated the methodology of excavating medieval churchyards based on his experiences in Kide, where he had the opportunity to examine 12th to 19th century material. Géza ENTZ (1913-1992) and Béla KABAY (1921-1996) rendered account of sacral relics and relics of the history of art. The results of linguistic investigations are extremely many-sided. A monograph of Borsa Valley toponyms by Attila SZABÓ T (1906-1987), prepared together with the late Béla GERGELY (1910-1944), cut off before his time, appeared in the 1940s. It covers geographical names of historical-archival and recent, verbal origin alike with the locations pinpointed on maps. Gyula MÁRTON (1916-1976) wrote of the names given to animals in the area, and of the role of verbal forms, and Mózes GÁLFFY (1915-1988) of the hypocoristic forms of Christian names. Ferenc FARAGÓ's study on "The state of public health in Kide" (Kide egészségügyi helyzete) covers much wider ground than indicated by its unpretentious title. The material collected on questionnaires presents a detailed, objective picture of everyday village-life and customs, including such particulars as the number of rooms per family, the size of rooms, the order and frequency of white-washing them, the number of windows, etc. The work of Aurél VAJ KAI (1903-1987), who collected the material of folk medicine with exemplary meticulousness, is a monograph of ethnographic approach. The secular music of the Hungarians in Kide was dealt with Pál JÁRDÁNYI (1920-1966). His monograph imparts indepth knowledge of the relationships between music and man, and of music and society. The organizer and director of ethnographic research in the Borsa Valley was László K. KOVÁCS, who involved more than twenty experts in the work. Part of the collected material found its way into the documentation department of the SIT, but a significant part disappeared or was destroyed in the adversities of war. László VARGHAs (1904-1984) systematically ordered notes, photos and survey material of vernacular architecture