Hungarian nationhood in the light of the ethnosymbolist theory

The objective of this paper is to trace the emergence of the ethnic consciousness of the Hungarians and their becoming an ethnie on the basis of the ethnosymbolist par- adigm’s six criteria. Subsequently, the article also presents the transformation from ethnicity to nationhood based on Anthony D. Smith’s model. From the perspective of the ethnosymbolist approach, the emergence of the Hungarian people can be dated to 970, and the birth of the Hungarian nation to 1848. When applying Smith’s model to the Hungarians, it can be concluded that the Hungarian people only became a nation after more than eight centuries of further transformations. All this suggests that eth- nosymbolism does not go astray in its search for an ‘ethnic core’ of modern nations back in the distant past. Rather, it would be more appropriate to reconsider wheth- er the term ‘nation’ can indeed be applied only within the ideological and temporal framework of historical modernity.

Hungarians, ethnosymbolism, gentilism, Anthony D. Smith, ethno- genesis, national consciousness, Nationalism Studies