ETHNOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE STUDY OF FAMILY IN THE WINE-GROWING ENVIRONMENT

The study characterizes several signs of the wine-growing family at the town of Modra in the Little-Carpathian wine-growing area in the south-west of Slovakia. The ethnological interpretation of these signs is carried out by means of the social functions performed by the family in the first half of the 20th century. The starting point is the economically transitory and socially ambivalent character of the family given historical development and the acquired cultural signs of wine-growing at town, which, as a branch of economy, appeared between rural agriculture and town-crafts. The wine-growing family is not examined as an isolated element, the analysis is based on the study of the wine-growers as a specific group. What is of importance for the study of the family position and dynamism of the functions it has in an urban social environment. Since Slovak ethnology does not dispose of a sufficient number of the relevant specific signs in order to define a position of the family of the wine-growers as a single, particular family type, the authoress claims that the term 'family in the wine-growing urban area' is not appropriate. The empiric material used by the authoress in her study is represented by the biographical interviews and study in the archives in 1997-2003.