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Paper short abstract

In my paper, I will highlight the fuzzy disciplinary framework of Hungarian ethnology, focusing on its contentious relationship with mainstream anthropology/ethnology, especially in the last decades, following the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

Paper long abstract

Research on the history of Central and Eastern European anthropology/ethnology increasingly uncovers the diverse landscape of our discipline. I intend to contribute to historiographic narratives on this mosaic-patterned scientific landscape, focusing on the development of Hungarian ethnology. I argue that Hungarian ethnologists have frequently encountered the challenge of fully asserting their position within the fabric of European anthropology/ethnology/Völkerkunde. Although regions beyond Europe were similarly perceived as embodying alterity, distance, or the locus of “Primitive” or Oriental otherness, Hungarian scholars often found it challenging to establish their identities within the dichotomy created in metropole knowledge centers, especially in the case of Oriental alterity. Anthropology/ethnology in Hungary, focusing on Asia, was motivated by several unique factors (a common origin, the search for kinfolk, etc.), which shaped the epistemological horizon of oriental studies.

In my paper, I will highlight the fuzzy disciplinary framework of this research legacy, focusing on its contentious relationship with mainstream anthropology/ethnology, especially in the last decades, following the collapse of the Soviet bloc. This event led to three significant consequences in Hungarian ethnology:

1. Fieldwork started in Central Asia and Siberia again.

2. The Eastern origins of the Hungarians became central to national identity politics.

3. Western anthropological trends exerted a greater impact on Hungarian ethnological research.

These complex changes led to the formation of new disciplinary boundaries, institutions, and methodologies, ultimately transforming the epistemic contexts of ethnological/anthropological knowledge production in Hungary. Based on the concept of "anthropological ecumene," I propose a comprehensive perspective on these disciplinary endeavours.