Material Culture and Heritage

Andrasfalvy, Bertalan

Bertalan Andrásfalvy, professor of ethnography, called our attention to the values of folk heritage in the context of modern culture. The recurrent debates over the status of ethnography as a science may be reconciled by an approach to folk heritage as nothing else but the sum of needs and experiences gathered by a large number of people over the centuries. Traditional folk knowledge often provides more suitable answers to our problems than contemporary techniques. Folk culture helps modern society by safeguarding the humane, emotional component of human life. Customs of childbearing and child rearing, love and sorrow, and festival days are not only "nice", but constitute a living tradition to our very day.

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