Cseri Miklós - Sári Zsolt (szerk.): Vidéki életmódváltozások a 20. században (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2009)

Halák Emese: A kerítések nyelvén – Avagy változó típusok és jelentéstartalmak Erdőhorváti rejtett jelrendszerében

Emese Hálák Good fence - good neighbours! Changing types and meanings in the hidden system of symbols in Erdőhorváti The fence is the primary visiting card, the shop window, the turned out purse of the builder, resp. of the owner; it is the first communication channel directed to the outside world, talking in the objective world's sign language rich in symbolic values. The fence ensures not only outer and inner security or marks the limits of a territory, but having a prestige value, it refers to the owner's social and financial position, and it is a means of norm observance and of self-expression, since the differences of the fences within the types (pattern, colour, etc.) are the consequences of individual decisions, due to the individual's choice from the offer of materials, technical solutions and prevailing tastes, which all are characteristic for the given period of time. The characteristics of form, structure, material or technology point not only at the place of each type in the time-section. Varieties of a type may appear simultaneously within the same village and even within the same plot. Therefore, the characteristic place in space of the given fence type within a time-section has also a signalling value referring to the shifting of accent, to the changing hierarchy of the functions, which determine the characteristics (like height, carving, durability, representative purposes) of the fence types. As a further contribution to the colourful picture, let us mention those objects, which add to the functions and the signalling value of the fence: the doorbell, the letterbox and the "Beware the dog" boards. I deal in my lecture with the change of this hidden dimension in the communication of rural culture, still perceptible by human recollection, by using the example of the small village in Zemplén county, Erdőhorváti. 249