Az idegenség és az azonosság sémái valamint Sajnovics János Demonstratiójának kritikai fogadtatása

The critical interpretation of János Sajnovics’s Demonstratio in the 19th century (and beyond) has been thoroughly explored by historical linguists. However, much less attention has been given to the anthropological interpretation of the debate focusing on the origin of Hungarians and the Hungarian language. By enumerating several pseudo-ethnographies published in prominent Hungarian journals in the early 19th century on encounters between Hungarians living in Hungary and Hungarians still residing in Asia, the article proposes a new framework for interpreting the debates in the early 19th century about the Saami people and Hungarian settlements in the Orient. Instead of polarizing opinions around the idea of Turkic/Oriental versus Saami/primitive origin of Hungarians and avoiding the traps of considering some parts of the contemporary discourse unscientific, the article argues that it is more illuminating to focus on the representational schemes applied by the authors to understand and represent Otherness and Sameness during the course of the debate.

kulcsszavak: orientalizmus, magyarság eredete, episztemológia