The interconnectedness of marriage politics and luxury consumption: a marital biographical perspective

ABSTRACT

The article examines how two symbolic arenas of Gabor Roma politics – the accumulation of wealth (with a special focus on competitive luxury consumption centred around beakers and roofed tankards made of antique silver) and marriage politics – are intertwined and interact with each other. The first part introduces Roma politics, describes the most important features of luxury consumption and marriage politics, and delineates the main types of interconnectedness and interplay between these two symbolic arenas. The second part, using a marital biographical perspective, sheds light on how one of these types of interconnectedness works through a detailed analysis of the establishment and dissolution of an engagement of historical importance among the Gabor Roma. This case study demonstrates why and how economic and political ambitions or constraints may shape individual and family-level strategies and decision-making concerning partner choice and marriage politics. The article serves as an insightful example of why a marital biographical perspective – based on concepts such as processuality, dynamism, relatedness, and context-sensitivity – is well suited to provide a nuanced insight into how the political economy of family life works in various ethnographic settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Economy
• luxury consumption
• marriage politics
• family life
• Gabor Roma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. These objects, produced by non-Roma silversmiths – mainly Transylvanian Saxons and Hungarians – were originally owned by non-Roma aristocrats, burghers, guilds, and Calvinist Church congregations.

2. Concerning arranged marriages among (non-Gabor) Romanian Roma see, for example, Beissinger (2020); Bitu and Morteanu (2010); Crai (2015); Engebrigtsen (2007); Oprea (2004), (2005a), (2005b); Tesăr (2016), (2018).

3. The key element of the dowry is the marriage payment. In the determination of the actual amount the parties take into account several factors, particularly successes in Roma politics, often through a lengthy process of negotiation. The marriage payments that I observed in the last two and a half decades – between well-to-do families – were generally in the range of US$10,000–US$30,000, and the highest was €100,000.

4. On the life of workers and state-owned companies before the political regime change, see Bartha (2011), (2012).

5. Taking into account the National Bank of Romania’s exchange rates of 4 December 2000, 300,000 German marks were worth US$135,954. This purchase price was equal to 1,215 times the gross average monthly salary in Romania in 2000.

6. The extent of the lender’s political ambition is well illustrated by the fact that – using his social influence – he secretly persuaded Marko’s only helpful acquaintance to reject Marko’s loan application. Due to this political manoeuvre, Marko had no other choice but to borrow from him.

7. The broker already knew from an earlier conversation with Mate that Mate could offer a marriage payment of up to US$60,000 at the most with his granddaughter.

8. This amount was 385.2 times the gross average monthly salary in Romania in March 2002.

9. This purchase price was 1,886.7 times the gross average monthly salary in Romania in 2009.

10. This purchase price was 961 times the gross average monthly salary in Romania in 2006.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Péter Berta

Péter Berta is an interdisciplinary social scientist focusing on Central and Eastern Europe, especially Romania and Hungary. He specializes in material culture studies, consumption studies, law and society (the politics of arranged/forced marriage and divorce), and Romani studies. He is a senior research fellow at Budapest Business School (Dept. of International Trade and Logistics) and an honorary research associate at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. His monograph Materializing Difference: Consumer Culture, Politics, and Ethnicity among Romanian Roma won the 2020 Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award from the Sociology of Consumers and Consumption Section of the American Sociological Association and received an honourable mention from the committee for the 2021 Society for Romanian Studies Book Prize. He is the founding editor of the book series The Politics of Marriage and Gender: Global Issues in Local Contexts (Rutgers University Press). The volume he edited, Arranged Marriage: The Politics of Tradition, Resistance, and Change, was published in 2023 by Rutgers University Press. His current research focuses on the global politics of arranged and forced divorce situated at the intersections of gender, violence against women and children, power, law, and religion.