Between Tradition and Change

Through the historic metaphor of hunting the essay examines the lifestyle of the dominant elites of Hungary between 1945 and 1990 on the basis of archival documents, private records, and oral history interviews. The analysis emphasizes the fact that there were interactions between the old, prewar aristocracy and the new state socialist elites. The co-incidence of lifestyles can be viewed through the lens of social and cultural change: new elements hit against the old, shaping and dissolving old behavioural patterns. The article analyses hunting in the contexts of social differentiation and social grouping. Using semiotics the author shows how, even during the era of state socialism, power and social distinctions were articulated on the level of lifestyles, and transmitted via the social, semiotic function of behaviours, patterns of taste, and forms of interaction. Thus, hunting evolved into a metaphor over time in Hungary: it was not only an indispensable part of the everyday life of the elite, but also became a symbol for belonging to it

Aesthetics · Aristocracy (class · Art · Communism · Elite · Linguistics · Metaphor · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Semiotics · Social change · Socialism · Sociology · State (computer science · Symbol (formal · Taste · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Psychology

• Transformation of a Strictly Controlled Border Area into a Tourist Destination

  Open Access•Ágota Lídia Ispán•Traditiones•2019

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