Bali, János: A magyar nemzet etnológiája [The Ethnology of the Hungarian Nation]
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: A book review always serves a number of different purposes.One goal may be to direct the prospective reader's attention towards the issues presented in the book.The reader has only to turn to the back cover of the present publication to find a series of precisely and intriguingly formulated questions, which, for the past three decades, have been the cornerstones of the academic and teaching work carried out by the author, János Bali."Where do we belong in Europe?Where do we stand between East and West?…What examples do we know of rivalry between nations?… How do we create national heroes and myths?Where do we seek and find the starting points of national continuity?What do our historical cults reveal?What patterns of values and behaviors do they transmit?… How are national symbols created, reinterpreted, discarded, or revitalized?With which elements of everyday life are national symbols and content associated?"It is these and similar questions that are addressed in this volume of studies.The book also examines, for example, a question that has preoccupied several generations of thinkers: Why do national tragedies play such a significant role in the Hungarian concept of history?But a book review is also intended to help potential readers recognize the author's qualities.In this regard, one important merit of the present volume is that, while adopting a historical perspective, it conveys a sense of the dynamism of change and continuity and provides a graphic illustration of the interrelationships between causes and effects.The volume might perhaps even more justifiably have been given the title "The Ethnology of National p
Source: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica
Authors: Ágnes Kapitány, Gábor Kapitány
Language: Hungarian
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4407742280