ORGANIZAREA ŞI REPREZENTAREA ROMILOR ÎN PERIOADA POSTCOMUNISTĂ
ORGANIZATION AND REPRESENTATION ROMA IN THE PERIOD POSTCOMUNIST

Author(s): Marius Lakatos-Iancu, Alina Lakatos-Iancu
Subject(s): Ethnohistory, Local History / Microhistory
Published by: MUZEUL ETNOGRAFIC AL TRANSILVANIEI
Keywords: leader; association; representation; roma; identity
Summary/Abstract: This paper aims to illustrate and analyze how formal and informal leaders of the Roma community, in the post‑communist period, brought more value to the Roma community, both from the point of view of the valorization of cultural heritage and and also of affirming and assuming the ethnic and cultural identity.About half a century, more specifically 43 years, between 1947 and 1990, the Roma in Romania were not only not represented by any legal entity, but they were not recognized as an ethnic minority, although they represented about 1.5% of the total population. Only in 1990 the Roma were recognized as a minority, and with it, were born the first associations, political parties, unions and groups established for the purpose of representing the Roma. At the same time, shortly after this movement, the first public policies for Roma inclusion are adopted, which, in addition, support a series of measures aimed to contribute to the representation of Roma at institutional level.Thus, the study will expose the historical evolution of the Roma people since the first attestation on the Romanian territory, how they were organised both in the family and in society. It will deepen the decisions of the political, cultural, administrative and educational mechanisms, which were the basis of the Roma representation, and how they contributed to the support of the Roma immaterial cultural heritage and for the closer knowledge of the specifics of this ethnicity by the members of society. The first part of the study will provide a brief introduction regarding the organization and representativeness of the Roma in various periods or significant historical events for the ethnic (slavery, the Holocaust) and will involve some defining theories and concepts specific to this topic.The second part, the essence of the study, will analyze the most important events, public policies and, last but not least, the measures that, after 1989, contributed even a little to the knowledge and recognition of the Roma as a national ethnicity. At the same time, the study will briefly show the evolution of the representativeness of the Roma in terms of the formal and informal leaders of the community, as well as how this representation proved its contribution to the valorization of the Roma culture and the assumption of their own ethnic identity, with a focus on Cluj County.

• Details
• Contents