A European ethnologist from Transylvania: Károly Viski

Paládi-Kovács, Attila (2007) A European ethnologist from Transylvania: Károly Viski. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 52 (2). pp. 335-350. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

Károly Viski (Torda, 1882-Budapest, 1945) was an outstanding figure in European ethnology in the years between 1920–1945. He was born in Transylvania and trained as a secondary school teacher of Hungarian and Latin at the university of Kolozsvár. As a young teacher he taught in schools in Transylvanian towns and did research on the history of the Hungarian language and dialectology. In 1920 he joined the staff of the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest and became an expert in decorative arts, material culture and European ethnology. His book on the folk art of Transylvania written in the early 1920s was published in many languages. He played a role in the choice of a European, Scandinavian orientation for Hungarian ethnology and in strengthening ties with Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Poland. He was the spiritus rector and editor of the big four-volume synthesis published in the 1930s which presented traditional Hungarian material culture and folklore in a broad European context. He devoted special attention to research on the cultural heritage of the peoples of Transylvania, the co-existence of the Hungarian, German and Romanian ethnic groups and the history of cultural exchange processes. He did a great deal for museums, collections and exhibitions of ethnography. Between 1940–45 as professor at the university of Kolozsvár and later of Budapest he trained a whole series of outstanding students (e.g. Károly Kós, János Kodolányi, Ágnes Kovács, Mária Kresz, Károly Gaál, László Vajda).

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