Ethnographia • 100. évfolyam (1989)
Tanulmányok - Zsigmond Gábor: A Magyarországi Néprajzi Társaság megalakulása és Katona Lajos. 195—217
SZABÓ Ervin 1905 Új folyóiratok. Huszadik Századi. VÁMBÉRY Ármin 1895 A magyarság keletkezése és gyarapodása. Budapest VIKÁR Béla 1890 Finnországi tanulmányutam. Ethnographia I. 231-245. Gábor Zsigmond THE FOUNDATION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF HUNGARY AND LAJOS KATONA (Abstract) The author draws a comprehensive image of the Hungarian intellectual life in the 1880s and 1890s, when the idea of creating an independent institutional framework for ethnography, the establishment of the Ethnographic Society occurred among some senior, respected researchers of history, geography, linguistics and literature. Members of a new generation in the literary and artistic life were organized on the basis of progressive social criticism and introduced new artistic objectives during the same period. The outstanding folklorist and man of letters, Lajos KATONA was among these young people. They also wanted to assert their own aims in the Ethnographic Society. The paper discusses in detail the groups existing prior to the establishment of the Ethnographic Society, and subsequently the disputes within the Society, which had led to repeated changes in its leadership during the first years. Lajos KATONA (1862-1910) himself came from a poor family of artisans, he was interested in the history of religion and mythology during his university years. The development of his scholarly character was greatly influenced by an indivation of Hugo SCHUCHARDT to Graz, where he received an excellent philological training. As contrasted to the interpretation of ethnography by the "old generation" concentrating upon reconstructions of ethnic history he wanted to locate Hungarian ethnographic and folklore research within a comprehensive ethnological perspective of the evolution of mankind. He was the editor of the Ethnographia for several years. From 1891 onwards, when he got into conflict with the leadership of the Society, he published a literary and scientific review entitled Élet (Life), which had a central role in the contemporary cultural life. It was he and the editors of Élet who invited Henrik Ibsen to Budapest, which was regarded as a spectacular triumph of modern literature. In 1896 he again took over the duties of the Secretary of the Society.