National Culture: Symbols and Reality
in Ethnologia Europaea
Author:
Péter Niedermüller
Péter Niedermüller
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin peter.niedermueller@rz.hu-berlin.de
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This paper deals with the formation of Hungarian national culture at the turn of the century, showing how divergent cultural strategies and practices were applied in step with changes in social structure. The peculiarly Hungarian experience results from the dual social structure which divides Hungarian national culture into two independent parts. On the one hand there is the ancient peasant culture with strong ties to oriental tradition. On the other hand there is the urban or bourgeois culture which was associated with modernization. This dual character of Hungarian society and of Hungarian national culture I interpret as the coexistence of symbolic and real dimensions of national culture.