Socio-cultural Representations of the Ethnic Identity. Crises of Romanian Gypsy/Roma Population
Socio-cultural Representations of the Ethnic Identity. Crises of Romanian Gypsy/Roma Population

Summary/Abstract: Doomed to have a troubled history, the Gypsy/Roma people who passed through, travelled about or settled in the Romanian territories are socially represented by nomadism, slavery, marginalization, discrimination and delinquency. Each of these phenomena is associated with particular stages in the process of building their constantly re-emerging ethnic identity. The present study evolves from a diachronic survey of some classes of Gypsy/Roma groups, taking into account criteria such as social condition (enslaved vs. freed), degree of sedentarism (sedentary vs. nomadic) and traditional occupations (skilful craftsmen, processors of construction materials and entertainers/animators), to an evaluation of the current regional and occupational distribution of Roma communities in the historical regions of Romania (Moldavia, Oltenia and Ardeal) and of the transition from unary to binary naming systems.

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