Éva Schmidt

Éva Schmidt was an ethnographer and linguist who sacrificed her life to help preserve and promote the ancient culture of Khanties.

 The interest in eastern nomads started in her childhood. She always loved nature, forests much more than the urban environment. She was also attracted to hunting and horses.

Vilmos Diószegi's book called Sámánizmus (Shamanism) made a deep impression on her. She first read about the Khanty people from this book and it was the time when she decided that she must visit her eastern relatives some day.

Her studies:

1967-1973: English-Ethnography-Finno-Ugric Diploma (ELTE) meanwhile

 1969-1971: spent two academic years at the Department of Finno-Ugric Studies at the University of Leningrad

 1976-1979: trainee at the Finno-Ugric Department of the University of Debrecen

1979-1983: postgraduate student at the University of Leningrad

. 1989: Defense of candidate's dissertation in Moscow. Title of the dissertation: The traditional worldview of the northern Obi-Ugric people based on the material of the bear cult

Éva Schmidt first reached the Ob region in 1970. After graduating from the university, she became an employee of the Ethnographic Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, where she processed the legacy of Vilmos Diószegi.

From 1991 she lived in the city of Beloyarsky in northwestern Siberia, where she ran the North Ostyak Folklore Archive, what she dreamed of and created. Through her work, she has contributed to the preservation and revitalization of Ob Ugric ethnic culture.

Which included not only the official establishment of the archives, but also the collection and acquisition of the typewriters (then computers) required piece for scientific work even the furnishing the building.

She collected and recorded audio recordings the last speakers of the endangered Khanty dialects. In addition to the incredible scale of scientific work at the time of Éva's death 400 hours of video footage and almost the same amount of audio material were preserved in the archive

Edited, subtitled audiovisual material was also produced for educational purposes and at the request of local radio and television broadcasters. Éva Schmidt taught her staff how to use these technical tool. She also contributed to the upbringing of a new generation of Khanty intelligentsia, several figure in contemporary Khanty public life began their career as an employee of the archives. The construction of the amateur collection network among those who interested in traditions has started, and the professional management in this field was also the task of the archive. The education of the younger generation, which has broken away from the traditions, has begun.

After appropriate fieldwork, Éva Schmidt contracted with various local scientific institutes, transcribed the heroic songs collected by Antal Reguly and József Pápay in Cyrillic, commented on them, and read them on video with informants in nearby dialects.

She wanted not only to research but also to protect the Khanty people, especially from the cultural loss and its spiritual consequences.

In her scientific publications, she studied much the bear cult, the categorization of folklore genrens.

Éva Schmidt's publications were characterized by accuracy, maximum respect for the data, and solid theoretical and practical knowledge.

Spirituality was an important part of her life. The ancient sacred spheres put scientific knowledge into practice: she began to honor Khanty gods and spirits. The Khanties were both her disciples and masters for many years.

She did not examine the heroic songs as dead texts, as a repository of motifs suitable for structuralist analysis, but she saw in them a summary of the knowledge of a particular ethnic group, placed in space and time, in celestial and earthly dimensions

"For me, this myth is the everyday reality. But you are not in this party and that is why you are just listening it like a fantasy." she said in her book."

"Apparently, I was the first person to model: what would be the outcome of the meet between the Western consumer culture and the deeper layers of Ugric spirituality."

Éva Schmidt was characterized by a strong scientific and spiritual approach. She was both a scholar and a follower of Khanty traditions. She was very afraid she couldn't do everything for the survival of khanty culture.

These problems seemed almost insolvable to her. She was often depressed in her last years. Before her death, she wrote a will in where she told what to do with her properties. She asked for the destruction of many of them by a proper ritual. In 2002, Éva Schmidt unexpectedly ended her life with her own hand. Her unpublished bequest locked in accordance with her will, awaits the expiration of twenty years from his death. Many Khanties believe that Éva became a guardian spirit after her death who protects them.

Some of her works:

• Trends in the 20th century Ob-Ugric Oral Tradition. In: Lauri Honko - Vilmos Voigt (ed.): Adaptation, Change, and Decline in Oral Literature. Studia Fennica 26. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Helsinki, 1981. 147-173.
• Bear Cult and Mythology of the Northern Ob-Ugrians. In: Mihály Hoppál - Juha Pentikäinen (ed.): Uralic Mythology and folklore. Ethnologica Uralica I. Budapest-Helsinki, 1989. 187-232.
• Az obi-ugor mitológia és a medvetisztelet. Ethnographia 101(1990): 149-193.
• Az osztják metrika másik oldaláról. Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 91(1990): 181-194.
• Osznovi metriki v szeverohantijszkom peszennom tvorcsesztve: bnutriszrocsnij uroveny. In: Isztorija i kultura hantov. Tomszk, 1995. 121-152.
• Terepgondolatok az osztják nép és kutatása hőskoráról. Népi kultúra - népi társadalom 20. A Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Néprajzi Kutatóintézetének évkönyve. Budapest, 2001. 99-120.
  • Jelentések Szibériából. Bp. 2005.

Literature:

• Csepregi Márta: Jeva Smidt (1948-2002). In: Misszija ogyinokovo vengra. Voszpominanyija druzej i kolleg o Jeve Smidt. T. V. Volgyina et al. (red.) Moszkva, 2004. 20-30.
• Csepregi Márta: Szpiszok publikacij Jevi Smidt. uo: 115-122.
• Csepregi Márta: Éva Schmidt 1948-2002. Finnisch-ugrische Forschungen, 58(2004.) 465-469.
• Csepregi Márta: Schmidt Éva. 1948-2002. Nyelvtudományi Közlemények, 99(2002.) 309-314.