“Come on, let´s strengthen our eastern roots” – is echoed by many contemporary Hungarian musicians, engaged in a distinctive folkloresque music genre since the early 2010s. Táltos drums are played on public television, throat singing is incorporated into musical performances, nomadic horsemen drink from horns in video clips, and Turkish-Hungarian music co-productions are emerging.

Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted at selected sites pertinent to this particular tradition-invention- among musicians, audiences, cultural professionals, and locations of memory- the dissertation investigates this phenomenon through the application of key anthropological concepts, like musical affect, identity and tradition invention. Utilising music and its affective power as a methodological lens, it seeks to gain insights into broader cultural processes. In accordance with Hobsbawm and Ranger´s theory of invented tradition and Benedict Anderson´s concept of imagined communities, it is posited that the emerging “Steppe music tradition” constructs a mythic continuity with nomadic ancestors, thereby responding to what András Máthé-Tóth conceptualises as a wounded collective identity. Furthermore, this invented musical tradition functions not only as an expressive vernacular form but also as an endeavour to heal collective trauma, facilitate political myth-making, and institutionalise a reinterpretation of history.