The Relations of Ethnic and Confessional Consciousness of Gypsies in Bulgaria
The Relations of Ethnic and Confessional Consciousness of Gypsies in Bulgaria

Summary/Abstract: In general, Bulgarian Gypsies are Eastern Orthodox Christians and Moslems — the two mainstream religions in Bulgaria. Today a heavy influence is exercized by the different Protestant denominations (often considered "sects" in Bulgaria), and certain evangelical churches recruiting among the Gypsies. The proposed paper will look at the Relations of Ethnic and Confessional Consciousness of Gypsies in Bulgaria. Under the influence of the practised religion and the manifestations of preferred ethnic self-consciousness traditional hierarchy of Gypsies in Bulgaria, is changed, groups are rearranged. A change of religion or the conversion to a new religion is often seen as a possibility to seek a new place in the overall structure of the surrounding society, to adjust to new conditions, to find an outlet from the crisis in one's own ethnic body; under Balkan conditions (where ethnic and religious identity often are confused) this could be also a way to change one's own ethnic attribution. This trend indicates moreover the existence of an attempted modification in the group mechanism of social life through substitution with new patterns and rapprochement to the dominant standards of the macro-society. In any case, religion continues till today to perform its function of integrating and segregating, i.e. it is instrumental in the integration of the Gypsy groups into the Roma meta-group communities and sets them apart from other subdivisions of the Gypsy people.

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