Barna Gábor (szerk.): The Szeged School of Ethnology (Budapest, 2004)
Gábor Barna - Tamás Grynaeus: Sándor Bálint (1904-1980), Professor of Ethnography in Szeged
Sándor Bálint (1904-1980) and His Work 57 REGION AND CULTURE Another main line of his work - not unrelated to the former - could be summed up as: the town of Szeged and the wider Szeged region. Nevertheless, when his oeuvre is considered, his work titled Szeged reneszánszkori műveltsége [Renaissance culture of Szeged]10 11 is often neglected. Sándor Bálint did not write introductions on theory and methodology, either in this work or elsewhere. The reader has to discover his approach from the work itself. The great lesson of this book is the way he drew a picture of the economic and social history and the cultural aspects of Szeged in the 15th-16th centuries - a purely Hungarian peasant-burghers’ town, and then in this context portrayed the local monastic culture, the university and literate culture introduced by students from Szeged studying abroad, then the role of the Reformation, the Turkish occupation and the resulting Szeged diasporas. It was in this way that, for example, goldsmiths from Szeged worked in Munich where they became members of the local guild and within a few generations were assimilated into the society of the town. He was the first to analyse the aspects of Szeged relevance in the miracle stories recorded at the tomb in Újlak (now Ilok, Serbia) of St John of Capistrano, who died after the victory in 1456 over the Turks at Nándorfehérvár (now Belgrade).11 In this work he drew on his encyclopaedic knowledge of the literature. Szeged városa [The town of Szeged] is a summary of the cultural history of his native town, with special emphasis on its architectural history. He shows the revenues the town derived in the Middle Ages from the salt trade, fishing and agriculture, and from agricultural industries, forming the foundation of the settlement’s cultural life. Its fortress at the confluence of the Tisza and Maros Rivers was of strategic importance right up to the 18th century. Turkish troops were stationed in it from 1552 for a century and a half. The local people adopted a number of dishes and items of dress from the town’s Turkish population. Writing about the Szeged witchcraft trials in the 18th century, he not only referred to their folkloristic significance but also observed that they were a form of expression and release of social and private conflicts. Today, this interdisciplinary, holistic approach is regarded as very modern and an example to be followed. The same can be said about his book Szeged-Alsóváros [Szeged Lower Town] which can also be regarded as our first monograph of a pilgrimage-place. He analysed the history of this part of the town and its everyday life and religious culture in close connection with the Franciscan monastery and church, and over a period of five centuries.12 Another big area of his work was thus research on the town of Szeged and its vicinity, the Southern Great Plain, in a complex approach. He wrote the monograph on paprika and slippers, two things regarded as characteristic of this region, both cultural consequences of the Turkish occupation in the 16th-17th centuries. His 10 Bálint 1975. 11 Later Erik Fügedi made a detailed study: Századok 111, 847-898, 1977. 12 BÁLINT 1983.