Hungarian Ethnography – the Description of the Hungarian Nation?

The contribution offers an overview of basis terms and a brief history of Hungarian ethnography including the history of Hungarian society (and nation) from the Middle Ages to the present. The author deals more thoroughly with more important authors and works that can be considered to be ethnographic. The most significant ones include Miklós Oláh (1537), Mátyás Bél (1735–1742), a statistics describing the theory of state, János Csaplovics (1822, 1829), Herder´s prophecy about the extinction of the Magyars (1791), collections and regional descriptions in the “reform period”, Ferenc Kölcsey and his “national traditions“ (1826), János Erdélyi who further developed the same theme (1847), new beginnings after the revolutio (1848–1849), Pál Hunfalvy (1876), foundation of the Hungarian Museum of Ethnography (1872), general and industrial exhibitions, the book Österreichische Monarchie in Wort und Bild (1886–1902), publication of comparative journals, the National Millennium Exhibition in 1896, foundation of the Hungarian Ethnographic Society (1889), Lajos Katon´s suggestion for terminology (1889: ethnologia – ethnographia – folklore), the period before World War I and the end of the “golden age” after World War I.