L’INTÉGRATION DES SUPERSTITIONS DANS LES STRUCTURES COGNITIVES
INTEGRATION OF SUPERSTITIONS IN THE COGNITIVE STRUCTURES

Summary/Abstract: The study is the first attempt in Hungarian research on beliefs to examine the legitimising activity and procedures of the individual and community using the belief. After following for several decades the biographic events of a single illiterate person who gained his/her knowledge from oral tradition, recording in detail his/her experiences and knowledge, the author identifies the following legitimising procedures: incorporation of the beliefs into the biography, placing the beliefs on the genealogical and social structure, building the beliefs on a regional ecological environment. At the same time, the analysis also identifies the causes and forms of a process of acculturation, namely: change in the way of life, the spread of literacy, the shift from traditional farming to factory work, the end of intensive contact with the natural environment, the loss of situations serving for the circulation of oral tradition.

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