Deconstruction of an Identification Error or How a Roma Subgroup Was Constructed
Deconstruction of an Identification Error or How a Roma Subgroup Was Constructed

Summary/Abstract: This article is an attempt to deconstruct the split of a Muslim Roma group and to explain why the “daughter’s” groups obtain absolutely different reputation, social status and cultural characteristics. The main focus of the explanation is social exclusion both on the side of macro-society and on the side of the other Roma groups in the region. The analysis is based on empirical data from Roma subgroups in the town of Sliven, Bulgaria. Although it looks like the paper is focused on a particular and isolated case, some of the mechanisms of “gemmation” of the ethnic group studied here probably have a more universal meaning.

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