Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 20. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2007)
KÓSA LÁSZLÓ: A Partium, a Bánság és Erdély táji-történeti tagolódása
STRUCTURING OF THE REGIONS PARTIUM, BANAT AND TRANSYLVANIA IN TERMS OF LANDSCAPE AND HISTORY The three regions with important historic traditions, the Partium, the Banat and Transyslvania (belonged to the Hungarian Kingdom till 1918, today: Hungary, Romania and Serbia share them) are in the eastern - south-eastern part of the Carpathian Basin. They form one of Europe's most complex regions in view of languages, denominations and ethnics in modern times. These regions are situated easternmost, near the boundary line which bifurcates Europe till now in terms of culture and which is identical with the boundary line between western and eastern Christianity. These regions suffered severe cataclysmic events during the 20 th century: state-borders changed several times, Jews were deported during WW II, Germans were expelled and taken to gulags, finally, most of them emigrated, the Hungarian population dwindled, the number of Gypsies increased. We can establish from a historic perspective that the ethnic restructuring took place with an accelerating speed. Due to ethnic clashes in the regions' history, one should not ignore the psychological effect of the ethnic cleansings in Bosnia in the 1990-s, which is geographically not too far away. This specific culture-geographical situation provides an opportunity to present by the means of an open-air museum these individual social-cultural-ethnographic conditions, which are unique in the world. It is expected that the great mobility of the population taking place presently, the consequences of the forced urbanisation and industrialisation - combined with the negative effects of globalisation shall soon intensify. Local characteristics, values and entities are seriously endangered. Any anthropologie-ethnographie research in the region is extremely important. It is the science's responsibility to prevent any further delay which would definitely cause the loss of one of the most colourful and complex regions in Europe.
