Folk-song: Emblem of the National Identity Cover Image

A (nép)dal: a nemzeti identitás hordozója. A széki énektilalmak margójára
Folk-song: Emblem of the National Identity

Author(s): Erika Tasnády
Subject(s): Anthropology
Published by: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület
Keywords: folk-songs; singing behaviour; national emblem; national identity; nationalist conflict; Transylvanian villages

Summary/Abstract: This paper proposes an analysis of folk songs as national anthems or symbols people would federate on, without taking into account boundaries of any kind following a scientific paradigm. According to the author, the nationalist dimension of a song is even more obvious in the conflicts associated to it. The paper’s first part introduces conflicts driven by nationalism and linked one way or another to a song, from memories gathered in the Szék village, Transylvania, Romania. More similar examples are given of prohibition supported by folk songs under the austrian monarchy. Traditional folk songs carry semanticaly rich contents, their meanings being often contradictory. The author researches a possible, more theoretical explanation to this in the second half of the text: why, and how, has folk singing first started to carry multiple meanings, and why repertoires from various origins and contexts, and providing very different contents can convey similar meanings? Before the emergence of the 19th century’s nationalism-oriented contents, repertoires with ethnic background most likely existed, that conveyed foreign symbols from people who spoke another language. Folk songs is an always updated kind of sketch, which meaning depends on social status, education, or other factors. The national/ethnic hallmark is only a part of the semantic field; it can however acquire a primary role.

  • Issue Year: LXXVII/2015
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 39-52
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Hungarian