Ethnologia Europaea

Witch persecutions in Hungary had to be ended "from above" by the enlightened measures of queen Maria Theresa, in the second half of the 18th century. How did this important change in judicial procedures and in the wider mentality occur? My article tries to investigate this problem on different levels. First I trace the work of Maria Theresa's court doctor, Gerard van Swieten, and the impact of North Italian enlightened thinkers and the Dutch sceptic tradition upon his campaign against superstitions, and upon a rationalistic worldview to be spread by absolutistic measures. Then, departing from the occurrence that the whole campaign, stopping witch-hunting in the Habsburg Monarchy, has started with some measures provoked by a new style magical being, the vampire, l try to raise the question whether the appearance and the apparent success of vampires in the early 18th century did not contribute to the decline of witch-belief in the same region. I examine how vampires at the same time made more sense to 18th century rationalist, medical and religious mentality and provoked a scandal, undermining the whole magical universe. I compare this change, occurring from the inner contradictions of the popular magical universe, to the similar effects of magical neoplatonism in 16th century England, and of possession scandals in 17th century France, both hastening the emergence of scepticism in the older style witch-beliefs. Finally, I try to point to two ways, in which the later 18th century transformed the vampire belief, once popular all over Europe: to transpose it to a social metaphor of bloodsuckers, or to sexualize this kind of magical aggression, paving the way for the 19th century invention of Dracula.

Im Mittelpunkt stehen Familie und Kindheit als sozialer Ort von Bräuchen und Verhaltensweisen, die die Lebensstationen jedes Menschen begleiten. Dieser Gedanke soll nicht im statischen Sinne des alten Lebenslauf-Kanon ausgeführt werden, sondern historisch vertieft und sozial verbreitet in der vielfachen Synchronität des zeitlich Ungleichartigen. Dabei kommt zum Ausdruck: 1. die innerfamiliäre unterschiedliche Ausformung von Lebensbräuchen bei Bürgern, Bauern und Arbeitern - besonders im Hinblick auf die Rolle der Kinder; 2. die bildliche Dokumentation der Lebensstationen in verschiedenen Sozialschichten, vor allem auf Gemälden und Fotografien. Dabei wird besonders an Kleidung und Mode der Kinder gedacht, an die Behosung der Knaben, die nun ihren Lebensweg auch äußerlich nach einem allen Kindern gemeinsamen Hätschelalter von den berockten Mädchen trennte. Diese Rollentrennung hat sich erst in der Gegenwart durch die Jeansmode wieder aufgehoben; 3. die Aussage dieser Fakten für die Volkskunde/Europäische Ethnologie über das epochen- und sozialgebundene Verständnis von Generationszusammenhang und Familie. Die Analyse bezieht sich in erster Linie auf autobiographisches und auf ikonographisches Material in Gemälden und Fotografien.

Pourquoi les chercheurs français qui consacrent leurs travaux à la famille et à la parenté ne s'intéressent-ils pas davantage au concept du cycle de la vie familiale? On peut attribuer cette situation à une séparation regrettable entre sociologie et anthropologie. Le papier s'efforce de retracer l'hlstoire récente du concept qui fut d'abord formulé par des anthropologues anglais (Meyer Fortes, Jack Goody), puis repris par des sociologues américains (Reuben Hill, Evelyn Duvall, Paul Glick, Roy Rogers etc.), et enfin par des historiens anglais et américains. En France, aujourd'hui, ce sont essentiellement les sociologues qui font usage de ce concept, en s'intéressant d'ailleurs davantage aux phases qu'au déroulement des séquences. Le papier examine ensuite les diverses directions de recherches; les ethnologues s'intéressent à dévolution des biens dans son articulation avec les modes de résidence et les systèmes matrimoniaux, aux thèmes de l'hérédité sociale des familles (autour des phénomènes de dénomination), aux formes et à l'importance de la mémoire familiale, enfin aux usages de la parenté. Les sociologues pour leur part sont davantage penchés sur les causes et les conséquences des changements structurels du couple et de ses signes démographigues. On observe par ailleurs un intérêt pour les études sur plusieurs générations.

Tracing developments in the literary representations of four famous West-European bandits - Cartouche, Bakelandt, Jan de Lichte and Schinderhannes - this paper shows how most of the tales about these bandits revolve around two stereotypical images: the Noble and the Ignoble Bandit. Both images can be regarded as inversions of the equally stereotypical self-image of established West-European citizens. Though many of the bandit-tales at first sight belong to 'popular' culture, their readership in fact could be designated as a 'mass-audience' from a broad social spectrum. The literary 'careers' of these four robbers show that bandits only acquired a positive image if members of the middle strata in their societies could in some way identify with their activities. Finally, the prominence of both the negative representation of bandits (as a dangerous counter- society) and the positive version (as an idealized community) from the 16th until the late 19th century, is related to processes of state formation and 'internal pacification' in Western Europe.

Stories told about bad boys and little old ladies in the two Northern Irish villages of Long Stone and Killycannon typify the unacceptable extremes of rebelliousness and moral authority. These images, however, are ambiguous, for "old ladies" also exemplify a moral ideal of quiet respectability, while the bad behavior identified with "the boys" is sometimes deemed to be a necessary evil. These flexible but contrasting images are useful partly because they encapsulate a wide range of social statuses including gender, social class and ethnicity. They are also available for use as a "shifty" rhetoric of approbation and condemnation in a wide variety of social situations.

Witch persecutions in Hungary had to be ended "from above" by the enlightened measures of queen Maria Theresa, in the second half of the 18th century. How did this important change in judicial procedures and in the wider mentality occur? My article tries to investigate this problem on different levels. First I trace the work of Maria Theresa's court doctor, Gerard van Swieten, and the impact of North Italian enlightened thinkers and the Dutch sceptic tradition upon his campaign against superstitions, and upon a rationalistic worldview to be spread by absolutistic measures. Then, departing from the occurrence that the whole campaign, stopping witch-hunting in the Habsburg Monarchy, has started with some measures provoked by a new style magical being, the vampire, l try to raise the question whether the appearance and the apparent success of vampires in the early 18th century did not contribute to the decline of witch-belief in the same region. I examine how vampires at the same time made more sense to 18th century rationalist, medical and religious mentality and provoked a scandal, undermining the whole magical universe. I compare this change, occurring from the inner contradictions of the popular magical universe, to the similar effects of magical neoplatonism in 16th century England, and of possession scandals in 17th century France, both hastening the emergence of scepticism in the older style witch-beliefs. Finally, I try to point to two ways, in which the later 18th century transformed the vampire belief, once popular all over Europe: to transpose it to a social metaphor of bloodsuckers, or to sexualize this kind of magical aggression, paving the way for the 19th century invention of Dracula.