Ethnic belonging, kinship, and wealth: local politics of descent and group formation in a Roma community

ABSTRACT

The present study investigates the case of a Hungarian-speaking Roma community in a Szekler village (Transylvania) from the perspectives of (contested) ethnic belonging, kinship, and different forms of capital, and presents the struggles of a relatively newly formed group within this community for finding new social and ethnic positions in relation with their Roma fellows and also with the Hungarian/Szekler majority. The members of this new group are the most successful in basket weaving, the special craft of local Roma, while they also share a common family history when they link their descent to a funding father who raised 11 children. The family histories of the descent – besides referring to supposed Hungarian ancestors/relatives – are told in terms of work ethic, education, and religious life that all resulted in wealth, thus creating a new local ethnic group whose members constantly contest their Roma ethnic belonging and delimit themselves from the ordinary Roma. This in-betweenness unfolds the certainties and uncertainties of social and economic life, the identities between self, family, and community. The case can be perceived as an example of the dynamics of local social life and offer a view on the renegotiation of group formation and ethnic boundaries.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnic belonging
• kinship
• capital
• agency
• in-between

Disclosure statements

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

Notes

1. I deliberately do not narrow the fieldwork locales further. Nor do I present the village analysed here in detail.

2. Szeklerland: the eastern part of Transylvania inhabited by Szeklers (Hungarian ethnic group), encompassing today’s Harghita and Covasna counties and part of Mureș County.

3. For a more detailed presentation, see later and in my previous work (see Szabó 2019). These categories are primarily, as will be shown below, related to work, but they also carry important identification meanings.

4. The last 10–15 years have seen a decline in demand for wicker products and a restructuring of the market. Many Roma are also responding to this challenge by working abroad (see Szabó 2019).

5. On the village, Roma groups and labour migration, see also (Szabó 2019). One important note: the model could not cover the Roma community in its entirety. There are families that have a specific position within the Roma community, they could also cross borders. In the 2000s, an entrepreneur emerged from among the workers who today, based on his economic activity, would be classified as a manager, but his lack of social capital and the opposition of managers still keep him outside this group. Also, since the 2000s, a few tent-dweller (sátoros, sátor = tent) families speaking the Vlach-Gipsy language have appeared. Neither the Hungarians nor the local Roma have any contact with them.

6. All my respondents whom I quote are local male basket weavers, members of the elite group. I identify them with their year of birth. For two respondents born in the same year (1950) I write a distinctive “a” and “b” next to the year.

7. DAHR = Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség, RMDSZ, an acronym used almost exclusively to make a reference to this political party).

8. It should therefore be stressed: in the framework of the discursive strategies of the local world, both “Roma” and “Gypsy” can be perceived as stigma and do have a negative impact on local relations. It cannot simply be said that the analysis uses the ethnonym “Gypsy,” because that is what the locals use. The locals (the Roma), when examined more closely, prefer to use neither. This is why I decided to use the Roma ethnonym, because it is not so prejudiced in discourses outside the village.

9. I will not take the analysis in this direction, but it is worth paying attention to how this feature provides a biological explanation for the distribution of basically cultural competences.

10. Master of Folk Art = Népművészet Mestere, a prize awarded by Hungarian organizations.

Additional information

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Töhötöm Szabó

Árpád Töhötöm Szabó works as an associate professor at the Department of Hungarian Ethnography and Anthropology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He received his PhD in ethnology and cultural anthropology from the University of Debrecen, Hungary. His research interests fall within the area of economic, social, and political anthropology. He conducted research mostly in Transylvanian rural communities (but also in urban settings) concentrating especially on topics such as mutuality and reciprocity in economic and social life, interethnic relations, the ethnic background of economic activities (with a special focus on Roma communities), changes and reconstruction of rurality, local ecological knowledge and agricultural restructuration, and histories and narratives of socialism and post-socialism.