Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Time and social networks
Identities in change 51 ers who build their houses in the new part (Újtelep) of the village. The two parts of the village (Újtelep and Régi falu) differ both in architecture and demographic structure. A direct bus connection to the town of Pécs provides a quick and easy connection between the village and the town. Many villagers work in Pécs and their children go to school there. The investigation of interpersonal and group-relations is set into a historical framework, starting from the resettlements in 1947/48, proceeding through the era of state socialism and arriving finally to the years of the post-socialist reform economy and social changes. Although the analysis follows a chronological line, so that it can be considered a historical writing, it is based on personal narratives -closer to oral history-, my intention is to “read” those ethnic borders which divide (and also connect) the resettled people from Czechoslovakia (often referred to as “Upper Hungarians” /felvidéki in Hungarian), the “native villagers” of Hird (referred to as "the Hungarians”), and the native Germans ("the Schwabs"). As Frederick Barth underlines (1996), cultural/ interethnic borders are never rigid, they change both in time and space, and they are highly situation-dependent. It means that when we speak about detecting such borders, we analyse interethnic situations. I classify the studied situations according to the classic dichotomy of informal/formal and private/public. Three main layers (spheres) of ethnic contacts have to be distinguished: 1. village level, 2. internal group relations, and 3. beyond-village level (relations towards homeland). Scanning through situations of the above-indicated layers, the analysis looks for cases where ethnic separation causes the break of cultural continuum between the coexisting cultural/ ethnic groups in Hird. Level Ml: Internal group relations and interethnic relations. The Old village (“Régi falu”) The part called “Old village” was the original settlement of Hird until the late 1950s. When the resettlement program
