The Survival of Herdsman Traditions of the Great Plain in the Hungarian National Self-Image

Abstract In this paper I explore the kind of role that herdsman traditions associated with the Great Plain of Hungary (the puszta ), a feature also over-represented in Hungarian ethnographic studies, play in the contemporary national consciousness by analyzing the results of a large sample questionnaire survey. I present my topic in its geographic and historical context, primary as reflected in the processes of symbolization and stereotyping during the 19th and 20th centuries. I have concluded that herdsman traditions and, within that, particularly the puszta and its most prominent representative, the region known as the Hortobágy, played an important part in capturing a sense of “Hungarienness” as far back as the 19th century, in the field of auto-stereotypes, hetero-stereotypes and exo-stereotypes alike. This was the result of such a profound process that even 20th century modernization, which in fact swept away the actual traditional lifestyle of the puszta , failed to shake the role that the peasant tradition of the Great Plain played in the field of national symbolization. Tourism, followed by the Hungarian heritage movement, successfully conserved the related cultural elements and shifted the center of tradition to such new areas as the revival movement and experience-consumption (festivals). At any rate, Hungarian society continues to look on the herdsman traditions of the Great Plain as the most authentic source of their national heritage.