Katalin Juhászi loeng hügieenist 14. septembril 2010

Teisipäeval, 14. septembril kl 12.15 peab Ungari Teaduste Akadeemia Etnoloogia instituudi vanemteadur Katalin Juhász TÜ eesti ja võrdleva rahvaluule osakonna juures loengu "Cleanliness and Personal Hygiene in Hungarian Villages from the Turn of the Twentieth Century to the Present Day".

Loeng toimub auditooriumis Ülikooli 16-212. Olete lahkelt oodatud!

Lähem info: professor Ülo Valk, tel. 7375 310, e-post: ulo.valk@ut.ee

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Loengu lühitutvustus:

Ethnographers tend to neglect the study of simple, stereotypical acts of everyday life such as the act of washing oneself. In the broad sense we understand by the term of "washing (oneself)" not only the gestures necessary to clean the body or parts of it from any material dirt or filth but also the acts which satisfy the social demands linked to proper cleaning. Hence "washing" can assume magical connotations as well. In pre-modern societies the ritual of washing took place in the community, in accordance with its norms.

Quite a few procedures aimed at healing and/or protecting the body or the soul from bewitching or witchcraft are based on the real, imaginary, or mythical virtues of water. There are also such rites linked to transition (birth, initiation, wedding, death etc.) as well as cathartic rites that can renew or ensure health and beauty at some well defined day or period of the year (mainly in springtime).

Wide-ranging research has shown that cleanliness is both a social and a historical construction, that is, a relative rather than an absolute concept. The rather complex psychological and social causes of "washing" change with time and space. The social change characterized by modernization and urbanization in the first half of the 20th century had a profound effect on the mentality, way of life and social behaviour of Hungarian peasantry. This change in turn completely modified the meaning of "washing" and the related customs. With the advent of modernity, washing and bodily hygiene became individualised.

Thus the individual freely decides where to belong and creates his or her appearance according to the demands of the community. Washing is not a simple elimination of dirt, but a rite de passage. With its additional activities it aims to achieve an ideal, clean and perfect outlook, intended to conform to the liking of the community. Purity indicates to the outside world that the given person is a full member of the community. The aim of the lecture is to analyse the customs related to washing and bathing and their modification triggered by social change. It contains a brief clarification of the terms "cleanliness" and "hygiene", a short historical review of Hungarian and international research and a short history of "washing" as a universal custom, and an overall picture of the major stages in the change in village habits of cleanliness.

Katalin Juhász, PhD

Main fields of research: present day and urban ethnography (children folklore, urban folklore, calendar customs); way of life; hygiene, ritual washing; history and folklore. She has been studying the question of "washing" since 1989, and has published several studies on special aspects of it since in 1991. One book ("Have a wash", 2006), about 20 articles, and an exhibition in Hungarian Open Air Ethnographical Museum are the result of long years of field work. She also organised an interdisciplinary conference on the topic of cleanliness and washing, bathing customs and edited a volume of presented papers ("Pure lines - essays about the concept of cleanliness and cleaning", 2009). More information and list of publications: http://www.etnologia.mta.hu