Handing down — taking care: Generation transfer in Hungarian farm families in the context of transitions

Asztalos Morell, Ildikó (2013) Handing down — taking care: Generation transfer in Hungarian farm families in the context of transitions. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 58 (1). pp. 57-86. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

This paper intends to shed light on the shifting patterns of the intergenerational transfer of assets in family farms that experienced collectivization in Hungary. Although household-based production maintained its importance after collectivization, only some of the rural households could be considered as entrepreneurial and lead to extended reproduction. The traditional patterns of handing over the farm were abruptly halted, with the immaterial forms of transferring capital subsequently gaining in importance. In addition, considerations for securing care provided in old age became more clearly addressed, and were weighed against the previously dominant emphasis given on handing over the farm to the most suitable son.Through the analysis of the life stories of two families, the paper explores the emerging patterns of generation transfer along the following dimensions: 1) Has the relationship between caring for the elderly and handing over the family farm/enterprise changed? 2) Have different patterns of capital transfer emerged that are dependent on the ability of a family to initiate entrepreneurial household production during state socialism? 3) Since caring evoked the labour of women as either daughters or daughter-in-laws, can we detect shifts in the gender patterns of transfer and women’s ability to convert their caring labour into material assets and status within the family?

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