Discovering Szék
extract, György Martin (Budapest)

The traditional culture of the Village of Szék (Sic, Romania) in central Transylvania, which had long been recognized only by ethnographers and by a handful of researchers interested in certain folk traditions, became the focus in the 1970's among those interested in ethnography, folk art, and folk culture generally. It is worth noting how interest in the traditions of Szék-still remote and isolated as late as the 1980's-has spread and become a part of the national consciousness, with the village itself having turned into a Mecca for ethnographers since the early 1970's and having eclipsed nearly all other-much better known-areas of its kind within a relatively short period of time.

Ethnomusicologist Zoltán Kallós recording folk music at a wedding feast in Szék, 1971. Photo: Péter Korniss (Courtesy of the Táncház Archive).