Wyznaczniki poczucia tożsamości romskiej w kontekście Tadeusza Lewowickiego Teorii Zachowań Tożsamościowych (TZT)
Determinants of the sense of Roma identity in the context of Tadeusz Lewowicki's Theory of Identity Behaviors (TZT)

Summary/Abstract: The main focus of this text is Roma identity as the basis for the functioning of Roma in the modern world, as well as the factor that determines their relationship to and with culturally dominant communities. The theoretical concept that made it possible to systematize the determinants of Roma identity and was applied in describing its subsequent areas is Tadeusz Lewowicki's Theory of Identity Behaviors (TZT). Especially in a comparative context with the majority group, as Lewowicki (1995, p. 20) claimed, focusing on a selected minority community deforms reality and makes it difficult to reach more general regularities, conditions, relations. Relating the criteria for describing Roma identity to the areas distinguished in the TZT, it should be pointed out that the first three areas seem appropriate for the elements indicated by the romologist Matt Salo (1979) (the criteria he distinguished decades ago are the basis for most research and analysis) as the first, second and third, but also for the fourth and sixth. Thus, they concern determinants including historical fate, distinctiveness of institutions, culture, language, customs, transmission of traditions, as well as biological-racial categories, personality traits, ideas about the peculiarities of the group, stereotypes. The fifth element of Roma identity seems to correspond to the fourth area of TZT, as it concerns the economic sphere, living standards, styles of economic activity. Of particular contemporary relevance is the reference of considerations also to the fifth (social aspirations of members of the minority) and sixth (political, worldview, social and economic transformations in the macro-regional context) areas of TZT. My analysis applying TZT is based on my own long-term research among Roma communities in several countries, in-depth interviews, observations, document analysis, project and internship experiences.

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