Following the 1989 political -economic changes, Hungary has gradually transformed from a mere transit country of East-West migration into a target country as well. Social research closely followed the changing numbers of migrants and the various social and economic factors behind these processes. However, the material culture of migrants and migrant groups has not yet been researched. Our research programme which part of the investigation of contemporary material culture, a nationwide program directed by the Museum of Ethnography, Budapest aims to address this knowledge gap.
The aim of this project financed by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) is to investigate the material culture of Latin American, Arabic, Turkish, Russian, Indian, and East Asian migrants and migrant communities living in Budapest. The researchers start from the common point of departure of meaningful objects placing them into the centre of investigation, researching cultural relations, dialogues, negotiations and objections, discourses about sameness and alterity between the immigrants and the Hungarian society, as well as ethnic and identity politics and self-representations.
We consider objects, the related narratives and images as important vehicles of meaning. The question is what can such representations (personal material culture and related narratives) grasp from the daily lives of migrants and from their processes of integration? How do certain objects converse with the life histories of certain people, or do such objects reflect their own histories? The investigation focuses on the functional and meaningful objects as well as on everyday and cult objects, and aims to analyse the functional and symbolic value of these objects.
We consider migration processes related to migrants in Budapest as part of larger transnational migration processes, therefore their life-stories, stories related to objects of migration are also to be interpreted in this wider transnational framework. Memory and imagination surrounding migrant material culture can help to sustain relations with the distant home with relatives and friends. As some of the researchers in this area points out, physicality of objects, their concreteness and permanence help in establishing an existential continuity even in times of moving, relocation and change. While moving objects as ‘belongings’ from one place to another can strengthen one’s self, they can also create disruption by ending up with objects which are ‘out of place’, representing people who are ‘out of place’. Objects often act as agents between migrants and their far away homes, often left behind long in the past. Photographs, paintings, furnitures, pieces of clothing, textiles can have such role. Material culture also connects migrant subjects to home relatives, friends, or deceased ancestors. Gifts brought from far away places can act as reminders of the loved ones and can evoke nostalgia, intense feelings of longing for places and people, alternatively they can emphasise the multidirectional nature of one’s social relations.
The ethnographers and anthropologists participating in the project are familiar not only with the museum’s collections but also with the social, cultural and political situation of the immigrants’ countries of origin.
Final results of the project to be obtained:
We are seeking to establish contact with future European partners (preferably museums working on migration, university departments or research centers interested in the topic of the material culture of migration) to be able to continue with a comparative research projects preferable supported from a European Union research fund.
The aim of this project financed by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) is to investigate the material culture of Latin American, Arabic, Turkish, Russian, Indian, and East Asian migrants and migrant communities living in Budapest. The researchers start from the common point of departure of meaningful objects placing them into the centre of investigation, researching cultural relations, dialogues, negotiations and objections, discourses about sameness and alterity between the immigrants and the Hungarian society, as well as ethnic and identity politics and self-representations.
We consider objects, the related narratives and images as important vehicles of meaning. The question is what can such representations (personal material culture and related narratives) grasp from the daily lives of migrants and from their processes of integration? How do certain objects converse with the life histories of certain people, or do such objects reflect their own histories? The investigation focuses on the functional and meaningful objects as well as on everyday and cult objects, and aims to analyse the functional and symbolic value of these objects.
We consider migration processes related to migrants in Budapest as part of larger transnational migration processes, therefore their life-stories, stories related to objects of migration are also to be interpreted in this wider transnational framework. Memory and imagination surrounding migrant material culture can help to sustain relations with the distant home with relatives and friends. As some of the researchers in this area points out, physicality of objects, their concreteness and permanence help in establishing an existential continuity even in times of moving, relocation and change. While moving objects as ‘belongings’ from one place to another can strengthen one’s self, they can also create disruption by ending up with objects which are ‘out of place’, representing people who are ‘out of place’. Objects often act as agents between migrants and their far away homes, often left behind long in the past. Photographs, paintings, furnitures, pieces of clothing, textiles can have such role. Material culture also connects migrant subjects to home relatives, friends, or deceased ancestors. Gifts brought from far away places can act as reminders of the loved ones and can evoke nostalgia, intense feelings of longing for places and people, alternatively they can emphasise the multidirectional nature of one’s social relations.
The ethnographers and anthropologists participating in the project are familiar not only with the museum’s collections but also with the social, cultural and political situation of the immigrants’ countries of origin.
Final results of the project to be obtained:
- publication of a volume of essays presenting the results of the researches;
- publication of an illustrated album under the title „One object – one life history – one fate” aiming to evoke the life history of immigrants with the aid of an object chosen by them;
- setting-up a database for research purposes from the collected material (objects and related histories of life, documents of the investigation, photographs);
- making proposals on the basis of the experiences collected in European museums and institutes for the museum exhibition strategy and programs related to the immigrants.
We are seeking to establish contact with future European partners (preferably museums working on migration, university departments or research centers interested in the topic of the material culture of migration) to be able to continue with a comparative research projects preferable supported from a European Union research fund.
