A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 46. (2007)

†Udvari István-Viga Gyula: Bars vármegye 18. századi jobbágy-parasztjainak életviszonyaihoz

VIGA Gyula 1989 Az észak-magyarországi fuvarosok. Egy sajátos „vállalkozói" forma a hagyományos árucserében. A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve XXVII. 383-407. Miskolc 1990 Árucsere és migráció Észak-Magyarországon. Debrecen-Miskolc 2006 Udvari István (1950-2005). Ethnographia CXVII. 89-93. VRAUKÓNÉ LUKÁCS Ilona (szerk.) 1995 Szlavisztikai bibliográfia Udvari István munkássága alapján (1974-1995). Nyíregyháza THE LIFEWAYS OF THE PEASANTRY IN COUNTY BARS IN THE 18TH CENTURY In the 1990s, the authors collaborated on several studies on the historical ethnography of 18th century rural life in the counties of Upper Hungary (formerly part of historic Hungary, now part of Slovakia). István Udvari passed away in 2005. This study is based on the notes he made during his archival research and it is dedicated to his memory. The location and geographic setting of County Bars, the changing and interacting culture of the strikingly mixed ethnic population exploiting the resources in the region's varied environments offers several avenues of research for scholars of historical ethnography. Lying on the boundary of the uplands and the plainland, the region's varied topography and its the cultural and other contacts, as well as its historical traditions, display all the major interrelations, which have been earlier described in studies on human geography and lifeways in connection with the morphology of the Carpathian Basin. These can be studied in detail based on the available sources. The study focuses on the different subsistence strategies and the nature of diverse work cultures, as well as the contact and interaction between them, as can be reconstructed from the peasants' statements (investigatio) preceding the regulation of socage tenure in the Urbárium under the Empress Maria Theresa. The sources offer valuable information on the settings of traditional lifeways, the nature of the differing formations and they also shed light on the diachronic, shifting patterns of these systems, which fitted into the overall structure of the interaction between different regions. Evolving in the 13th century, County Bars (part of south-western Czechoslovakia after 1920 and of southern Slovakia after 1990) incorporated the middle and lower reaches of the River Garam, with the northern half lying in part in the mountainous uplands and in part in the northeastern table-land of the Little Hungarian Plain. The southern part was part of the plainland, which extended northward from the Danube along the Zsitva and Garam valleys and their side-valleys. Its western boundary was marked by the River Zsitva and the Dervence Stream flowing into the river, its eastern boundary by the Szikince Stream. The rivers dissected the Tribecs, the Szitnya and the Hungarian Ore Mountains and acted as the main arteries of the county's north to south traffic since the trade routes passed through the river valleys. The River Garam played a key role in this respect by linking Upper Gömör and Zólyom counties to the natural trade route, which for long centuries connected the higher lying upland regions and the southern uplands, as well as the Uplands with the Danube Valley and the Little Hungarian Plain. The plainland and the economy and lifeways of the plainland penetrated deeply into the mountainous areas of the Uplands along the river valleys -the Vág and Zsitva rivers were no exceptions and neither was the River Garam. Each valley and valley basin can be regarded as a niche. The River Garam, a roughly 300 km long tributary of the Danube with a high discharge in times of flood, linked population groups, lifeways, and work cultures from the Low Tatra Mountains (Királyhegy, Kral'ova Hol'a) to Zólyom, Léva and Esztergom. The upper valley section extending to Szentbenedek (Hronsky Benadik) was narrow, as was the valley floor, 290