Framework curricula for primary education

ETHNOGRAPHY

Years 5 and 6 of Education

In addition to learning about our own culture, teaching and promoting respect for the culture of minorities and ethic groups living in the immediate environment who have different traditions, then the culture of those who live in the broader homeland. Encouraging pupils to explore their homeland actively, and preparing them for developing a broad and in-depth knowledge of Hungarian culture. Developing a general view of the order and customs of the traditional peasant culture through examples taken from the immediate environment and the homeland. In large towns the quoted examples must represent the broader region. In case of Budapest, this can be any region which have an ethnographic significance or with which children have emotional links as a result of some shared experience or family relations.

Stirring up children’s interest in the ‘history of ordinary days’, ethnography, cultural history and folk poetry. Demonstrating the sources of history and ethnography (photos and films from the archives, relics in the museum, old documents, family stories, photos and documents, books, etc.). Teaching about the traditional forms of the family, the working schedule adjusted to the understanding of nature, the ethic and values of peasants to provide children with a stable background which will help them to understand the world and protect them from the extremes of consumer society, the value crisis.

Developmental requirements
The demonstrated examples, activities and reading passages should make the interaction and links between the natural environment, farming, society, physical and spiritual culture. Knowing these will make learning history and geography more pleasant and easier.

By the end of grade 6 (and with the help of the parallel syllabus of history), pupils should be aware that the things and phenomena learnt in the module about traditions change over time and the products of folk art differ from region to region. They must be aware that people live differently in the various periods of history and the various geographical regions.

On the basis of the physical elements of culture (the appearance of a house, the interior of a room, the articles of personal use, the number and size of farm buildings) pupils must be able to distinguish the poor from the wealthy (more subtle differentiation, i.e. from villein to peasant burgher is not needed at this age). They must be able to decide whether the pictures and decorations in the room belong to a catholic or a proestant.

They need to be familar with a few folk art motives, and must be able to tell which geographical region these are from. They need to know the decorations techniques related to these motives (e.g. weaving, embroidery, felting, carving, painting, etc.) in theory, as a minimum, however only if practical sessions are impossible.

They need to know a few folk customs together with their religious content and background, the related verbal folklore (dramatic play, chanting, song, etc.) and the beliefs related to the various customs.
New activities
Drawing or painting a few local folk art motives.

Applying the motives learnt in ethnography (i.e. embroidery, weaving, pottery, wood carving, etc.) class in arts and crafts sessions, if there is any at the school.

Learning some pieces of local folklore by heart: folk songs, ballads, tales, games and lyrics of folk customs. Act out dramatic plays (e.g. nativity play), select and make the necessary costumes for doing it.

Expand their vocabulary and concepts through learning about the articles used in the rural household and farming, on the one hand, and by learning the text of the products of folk art, customs and dramatic plays.

Pupils must see pictures of the special articles and devices which are not used any longer (e.g. dasher, heckle, spinning wheel, distaff, peel, trough, etc). If it is possible, the pictures should illustrate how these things are used, and pupils should make a drawing or painting about them.

Pieces of literature (e.g. folk poetry, Petõfi, Arany, Móra, Móricz) must be added to the examples of the various topics.

In connection with what is learnt about work, the family, human relations, children should act out situations, work processes (e.g. baking bread, processing hemp).

Collecting old family photos, reproductions of painting about the interior of a home or outfits with the help of the pupils. Organise the pictures according to historical periods, geographical location or social class (poor peasant, wealthy peasant, urban, middle-class).

Pupils should ask the old people living in their village or their grandparents about their own childhood, life, household, even if they have grown up in a city themselves.

Explore the changes of buildings, interiors and costumes on the basis of family photos.

Hungarian peasant culture must be compared with other cultures (an ethnographic region or a region with its own dialect, neighbouring nationality or urban culture, etc.) either in writing or in speech.

Discuss some of the irreversible changes of the peasant life (this may be a written assignment).

Pupils should use the library, be familiar with the major ethnographic collections of folk poetry, the book of Hungarian idiomatic expressions and proverbs, etc.

They need to learn as many work processes and customs as possible by watching films. They should visit the nearest museum of local history, ethnographic collection, open air museum and the traditional rural houses in the neighbourhood. They are required to recognise what they can see in the museum on the basis of what they have learnt in the classroom.

Year 5
Number of teaching hours per year: 18

TOPICS	CONTENTS
House	Types of homes (hut, yurta (Oriental felt tent), pit-house, logged house, house with several rooms). The correlation of climate, natural environment and building materials (comparisons with homes in distant regions, e.g. igloo, grass-hut, etc.) The correlation between lifestyle and construction techniques (portable tents, yurta, reference to the life of Hungarians before the Conquest). Some of the external features of Hungarian peasant houses, describing the various regions (West Transdanubia, Great Planes, the Hungarian ethnic group Palots, Transylvania).
Room	What can be found in the room? What is it made of? What is it used for? Reference to the division of labour in relation with the foregoing (carving as a male job, weaving as a female job). Lifestyle, religion (saint’s corner, relics), social status. Types of furniture and their traditional names: corner bench, table with chambers, couch, bench, stool, commode, flour-bin, wardrobe, sideboard, etc.) What were they used for? How were they decorated? Textiles: differentiating between embroidered and woven pieces, ordinary home textiles (tablecloth, bed linen), textiles in the ‘clean room’ (cushions, sheet fringe, etc.) Treasury of motives from the immediate neighbourhood. Ornaments: ornaments in the saint’s corner and on the commode (e.g. religious statutes, icons, patriotic prints, memorial glasses and mugs).
Kitchen	Types of fireplaces: fireplace, oven, forms and locations of stoves used in the room and in the kitchen, mode of use. Methods of smoke exhaustion: smoky kitchen, open chimney, closed chimney. Kitchen utensils: types of pottery (plate, pot, bowl, baking forms, carafe, jug). Matching characteristic forms with names and use. Other tools: e.g. churn-dasher, kneading trough, peel, potato masher, mortar, butter moulder, sieve, sausage filler. Reference to bread baking, milk processing, pig killing, food carrying, water storage and the recipes of some traditional Hungarian dishes in connection with the demonstration of kitchen utensils and other tools.
Daily life in and around a peasant house and	Division of labour in a peasant family at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century (with emphasis on the traditions of the immediate environment, e.g. large family, if there was any). The division of labour among sexes and age groups in and around the house: games small children played, children’s games imitating work; games and jobs of 10 to 12 year old girls or boys in groups: fetching water, feeding animals, cleaning, laundry, helping to cook, carrying food, attending geese or pigs; adult jobs: wood carving, basket weaving, seasonal jobs (jam making, weaving, spinning, etc.) Daily, weekly and annual routines and rhythm of work: daily and weekly order of meals and jobs, the annual schedule of work (jam making, feather plucking, spinning, weaving). Meals: winter and summer diet (typical peasant dishes). Casual clothes: pieces of traditional peasant clothing (linen trousers, long chemise, shirt, foot cloth, apron, kerchief, etc.) and the material they are made of.
Holidays	General summary of the role of holidays. Secular and religious holidays. The antecedents of holidays in European tradition.
Holidays in the peasant house	The holidays of the liturgical year in a peasant house. Preparations for holidays: Lent, work ban, food, costumes, customs, etc.
Christmas holidays	Advent, Nicholas Day, Luca Day, winter solstice. Customs still practised or revived by the local community (e.g. Christmas chanting, nativity play, minstrelsy, name day greeting, Childermas Day caning, New Year’s greetings. Epiphany, blessing the house and water, procession of the Magi.
The carnival season	The marked days of the carnival season. Explanation to why the date of the carnival season is not the same every year. Carnival greetings and masked traditions, e.g. animal masks.

Year 6

Pupils should realise that the traditions created by the successive generations of a community is a link to the past and helps understanding the present. This is because the experiences mankind has accumulated over the past centuries is the treasury of answers to the simplest and therefore the most important questions of life.

Learning about the home and its people should encourage pupils to respect dialects and to explore the intellectual and physical heritage, historical and religious monuments of the homeland in its narrow and broad sense. It should be an incentive to collect tradition which can be recalled or is still living.
Developmental requirements
Teaching should ensure that pupils learn about folk traditions in an exciting way, e.g. by listening to music, watching a film about a specific region or folk tradition, analysing such films according to given criteria, working with source material, visiting museums and rural houses in the region..

They need to learn a folk custom, traditional game, folk song, a product of folk poetry characteristic of a region in an exciting way. They are required to learn about a craft, and some methods of ethnographic research and exploring the homeland.

Demonstrating a few ethnographic features of regions and ethnic groups must make pupils aware of the diversity and common features of Hungarian folk traditions. The example of a concrete region should make them see that the life of folk traditions is determined by geographical features, historical development and economic factors.
New activities
Showing the major geographic and ethnographic regions of the Hungarian speaking territory on a map. Overview of ethnic groups and nationalities living in these regions.

Learning about the local natural conditions, traditional economic activities, ethnographic features and significant events of local history.

The activities of famous persons who can be linked or has links to the homeland.

Study walks, visiting famous buildings and institutions.

Learning about a traditional local craft, visiting a museum house or a village museum.

Collecting and comparing old photographs (of the family, home, wider environment).

Discussing experiences related to local customs, community events, festivals (patronal festival, pig killing, vine harvest, wedding).

Learning about a region in detail, collecting information and describing its local history, dialect and ethnography (e.g. economy, architecture, folk art, customs related to important days, collecting documents, research in the library, reading legends and sagas, watching films and television programmes, listening to music, singing, folk games). Observing and drawing products of folk crafts, costumes and the monuments of folk architecture.

Year 5
Number of teaching hours per year: 18

TOPICS	CONTENTS
Ethnic groups, nationalities, geographical and ethnographical areas and regions	The concept of ethnic group and nationality. Hungarians living abroad. The geographical and ethnographical areas, regions and ethnic groups of the Hungarian speaking territory. Nationalities in Hungary.
The natural conditions, economic, social and ethnographic features of the homeland	The natural conditions and traditional economic activities of the homeland. The local history and folk traditions of the homeland. Famous people, buildings and institutions related to the home. Ethnographic features and dialects of the region.
Ethnographical and dialectal regions	At least two of the following topics must be discussed during the school year: Transdanubia and the Little Plain Geographical location, some characteristic regions, ethnographic features and the people living here. Traditional economic activities: e.g. fishing, reed and bulrush processing, oak-mast hog raising. Social features: e.g. agricultural labourers, swineherds, millers. Settlement, folk architecture: e.g. compound settlement, enclosed house and house with a porch; craftsmanship, ornamental folk art: e.g. pottery, shepherd’s art, homespun, chest decorated with painted tulips, embroidered felt cloak worn by Hungarian shepherds. A few characteristic folk costumes (e.g. Sárköz, Kapuvár, Sióagárd). Folk customs: e.g. minstrelsy, whitsuntide procession of girls. Folk music (e.g. long flute, bagpipe) folk dance (e.g. circle dance) Ethnographic features of Hungarians living on the other side of the border, in regions connected to Transdanubia and the Little Plain (e.g. Zoboralja, Csallóköz, Slavonia)
	Northern Hungary Geographical location, characteristic ethnic groups (e.g. Palóc, Matyó). Traditional economic activities: making a living of the forest (e.g. woodcutting, lime-burning and charcoal-burning), shepherding, grape growing. Social features: the large Palóc family, seasonal workmanship. Settlement, folk architecture: e.g. forms of settlement(e.g. cluster village, spindle village), characteristic settlements, Paloc house and interior, farm buildings. Folk art (e.g. Palóc furniture, homespun, embroidery). A few characteristic folk costumes (Hollókõ, Mezõkövesd). Folk customs: e.g. throwing a dressed-up straw dummy in to a brook Palm Sunday, jumping over a fire on Midsummer Night, wedding customs; folk music (e.g. bagpipe songs) The regions of Hungarians living on the other side of the border, in the historical region of Felvidék (e.g. Medvesalja, Galánta), their ethnographic features.
	The Great Plain Geographical location, characteristic ethnic groups (e.g. Cumans, Heyducks, Jazygians). Main regions, country towns, ethnographic features. Traditional economic activities: e.g. free range animal breeding, fishing, farming in the flood area of a river, fruit and vegetable growing, agriculture. Occasions when the community works together. Social features: e.g. shepherds, diggers, homestead farmers, inhabitants of country towns. Settlement types (e.g. settlement with two inner lots, homestead), main settlement centres. Folk architecture (e.g. gable decorated with sunbeams, shepherd constructions). Craftsmanship, ornamental folk art, e.g. pottery, wall painting, embroidery. Folk costumes: e.g. embroidered felt cloak of Hungarian shepherd, shaggy fleece, outfit of peasant middle-class. Folk poetry, e.g. historical legends, highwayman’s song; folk customs: e.g. whitsuntide procession, wedding customs; folk dances, e.g.: Oláh style dance, jumping dance; folk instrument, e.g. hurdy-gurdy, zither. Hungarians living on the other side of the border, in the region connected to the Great Plain (e.g. Bácska, Bánát) and their ethnographic features.

Year 6
Number of teaching hours per year: 18

New activities
Dominant activities in connection with studying an elective ethnographic-dialectal region:

Interpreting the name of the region (e.g. Erdély, Székelyföld, Kalotaszeg, Zoboralja, Kárpátalja).

Finding the location of the region on a map. Market centres and famous settlements in the region.

Learning about the main ethnographic features of the region, the natural environment, economy, some products of the physical and intellectual ethnography of the people living in the region.

Collecting and drawing folk motives and artefacts, e.g. stitched cloth, wood carving, house, room and kitchen interior, costume.

Listening to folk music, get acquainted with the characteristic instruments and the events when the people can make music together (e.g. wedding, funeral).

Learn and recite a few folk song, tale and ballad.

Revive and act out a few characteristic folk customs.

Compare Hungarian folk culture with the folk culture of neighbouring people or the relatives of Hungarians through a few expressive examples taken from the products of physical and spiritual culture; e.g. natural environment, lifestyle, home, appearance, traditions, customs.

TOPICS	CONTENTS
The culture of our neighbours and the peoples of the world	Typical features of lifestyle among the various peoples. Examples of physical and spiritual culture: similarities and differences between Hungarian folk culture and the culture of the neighbouring peoples or the relatives of Hungarians. A glance at the culture of our neighbours, relatives or the peoples of the world (tribal societies or bygone civilisations) through stories, legends, ethnographical descriptions, travelogues, pictures, etc., and with the help of representative examples, e.g. Eskimos, Bushman’s, Nomadic people).
Ethnographical and dialectal regions	One of the following topics must be discussed during the school year: Transylvania and the Részek The definition of Transylvania and the Részek on the basis of geographical, historical and ethnographical criteria. Characteristic regions (e.g. valley of Fekete-Körös, Kalotaszeg, Mezõség, Torockó and its environs, Székelyföld, Gyimes), ethnic groups, the co-existence of peoples and learning about one of the following ethnographic units in detail.
	Kalotaszeg Geographical location, natural conditions, market centres. Traditional economy (e.g. animal husbandry, agriculture). Physical culture (architecture, domestic industry, e.g. hemp processing, straw hat making, pottery, fur trade; folk costumes, embroidery, carving). Folklore (folk dance, e.g. young men’s dance, folk music, folk customs). Mezõség Geographical location. Traditional economy (e.g. animal husbandry, agriculture). Physical culture, e.g. folk costumes, homespun, embroidery. Spiritual culture, e.g. folk music, folk dance (e.g. Szekler slow dance), folk song, folk custom (e.g. chanting, nativity play). Székelyföld Geographical location, main regions, the Szeklers as an ethnic group (e.g. their origin, characteristic military organisation, privileges, administration) Features of traditional lifestyle (e.g. Alpine animal breeding, silviculture, agriculture); mutual assistance. Physical folk culture (e.g. Szekler gate, painted furniture, thick woollen blanket, homespun, folk costume, painted pottery). Folk poetry, folk dance e.g. turning dance; folk costumes (e.g. perambulation, hesspávázás). Gyimes Geographical location. Traditional economy (e.g. animal husbandry, silviculture). Physical culture: (architecture, e.g. logged house), folk costume, ornamental folk art). Folklore (popular religion, e.g. archaic folk prayers, folk music, e.g. lamenting song, folk dance e.g. round dance, dances in pairs and in a chain, folk customs). Beyond the Carpathians: Moldva Geographical location, religion. Settlement of Hungarians, Hungarian villages (e.g. Lészped, Klézse, Pusztina, Szabófalva), a population fragment moving over to Transdanubia in the 20th century. The number of Hungarians in Moldavia, the difficulties of preserving heir mother tongue. Features of lifestyle, physical culture (e.g. folk costumes, homespun, home decoration) and spiritual culture (folk poetry, folk music, folk dance, folk religion, dialect). Kárpátalja Geographical location, nationalities within the population, coexistence (Hungarians, Ruthenians, Rumanians, Germans, Slovaks). Major towns. Traditional economy (e.g. slash and burn cultivation, wood cutting, Alpine shepherding, hemp processing). Physical ethnography (e.g. homespun, embroidery). Folk poetry (highwayman ballads, legends about King Matthias).

Pupils should know the following:
Pupils should actively learn about folk traditions. E.g. by learning a typical custom, folk game, folk song, product of folk poetry from a region. They are required to know a few handicrafts, and do ethnographic research. They need to choose a film about an ethnographic issue from the television programme or a video library, photos and books from a library. They are required to formulate their experiences, observations, know some of the characteristic expressions of the local language, folk culture. They are required to link their knowledge to what they are learning in other fields (e.g. history, literature, drawing and visual culture, singing and music).