NÉP ÉS GÉP, MÁGIA ÉS TECHNIKA, AVAGY: VAN-E A GÉPNEK LELKE?
PEOPLE AND MACHINE, MAGIC AND TECHNOLOGY, OR: DOES THE MACHINE HAVE A SOUL?

Author(s): József Gagyi
Subject(s): Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: Hermann Bausinger; people and machine;
Summary/Abstract: In this article, I revisit Hermann Bausinger’s reflections. In the Germanethnographer’s view, the multiplicity of machines is integrated into popular society from the very beginning, i.e. from the first period of their appearance: the latter cannot be conceived of as a socio-cultural organization before the machine age. If we observe carefully, we can “encounter in everyday life innumerable forms of natural contact with technology” (Bausinger 1995: p. 7). But it is also true that the encounter was perceived by the popular world as a threat: a play of unleashed forces, a meaningless (because for it it could not be understood) threat. After all,a kind of stability was established that could be observed in the industrial age: “a ritualized self-evidence of the relationship with technology” (ibid.). In my presentation, I will discuss what I imagine this means.

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