Egyház és népszokás Erdélyben a XVII-XX. században, különös tekintettel a székely falvakra és szórványtelepülésekre = Church and folkways in Transylvania in the 17th-20th century, with special regard to Szekler villages and small farms

A kutatás elsősorban erdélyi történeti néprajzi források feltárására és a bizonyos társadalmi, kulturális jelenségek (szokások) történeti és jelenkutató megközelítésére vállalkozott. A projektben résztvevő két kutató munkája nyomán nagy mennyiségű archívumi forrásanyag került elő a Székelyföld 17-20. századi mindennapi életére vonatkozóan. A források feltárása és feldolgozása mellett már több önálló kötet és tucatnyi tanulmány is napvilágot látott a régió (történeti és recens) népi vallásosságának és egyéb közösségi formáinak kapcsán. Utóbbi témakörben kiemelkedik a székelyföldi "tizesek"-nek mint sajátos önszerveződési, önkormányzati és településnéprajzi egységeknek az úttörő jellegű, átfogó vizsgálata. | The research primarily based upon the exploration of Transylvanian historical ethnographic sources and the examination of certain social and cultural phenomena (customs) in historical and recent perspective. A big amount of archive source-materials turned up after the work of the two participant researchers about the everyday life of Székelyföld in the 17-20th century. More books and an a dozen of study were already revealed beside the exploration of the sources about the (historical and recent) forms of folk piety and the other community forms of the region. The most important topic is the pioneer examination of the specific self-organization, municipal and settlement units (called 'tizesek') in Székelyföld

Exorcism and Sexuality: The “Thick Description” of an 18th-century Transylvanian Catholic Priest’s Transgression

Using contemporary documents, the study presents the story of a scandalous exorcism that took place in 1726-27. At the heart of the Csíkszentgyörgy (Ciucsângeorgiu) case is the local parson and a non-local “possessed” woman. The supreme church authority sought to figure out the details of the months-long case retroactively through testimonies and the correspondence of the priests involved. The demonically possessed woman upset the entire village community. In many respects, the priest became “obsessed” with the case and the woman. For his exorcism, he used methods found in alternative European manuals that were by then banned in the Church. The woman’s prophecies and reports of the afterlife were taken seriously not only by the priest, but also by the wider village community. The sexual fervor of the woman did not leave the young men guarding her at night – as well as the parson himself – unaff ected. The Church authorities ultimately sought to clarify the circumstances of the woman’s pregnancy, and especially the priest’s role in it. Although there is no judgment to be found in church sources, all traces of the Padre later disappear. In keeping with the trends of narrative history, beyond the “thick description” of the case, the author undertakes less contextualization than usual. The case is undoubtedly edifying in terms of the history of Roman Catholic exorcism in Hungary; it presents significant documentation of contemporary religious and folk demonology, contains the early traces of subsequent folk beliefs, and raises a number of cultural-historical issues (in regard to sexuality and love)