The Rhodopes: Perceptions about Boundaries
The Rhodopes: Perceptions about Boundaries

Author(s): Evgenia Troeva
Subject(s): Anthropology, Sociology, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Етнографски институт САНУ
Keywords: religious signs; identity; boundaries; Bulgaria
Summary/Abstract: The objective of this paper is to present an interesting example from Bulgaria – the Rhodope Mountains abounding in visible and invisible boundaries. That is the location of the political border of Bulgaria, separating it from Greece. The centuries-old cohabitation of people with different ethnic and religious identities in the Rhodopes has created a flexible system of finding unifying or dividing elements in accordance with the necessities of the specific context. The three basic ethno-religious groups inhabiting the mountain (Turks, Muslim Bulgarians and Christian Bulgarians) possess a complex of cultural characteristics such as language, name, self-identification, marriage patterns, traditional and ritual system, religious affiliation, clothing etc., which are instrumentalized with the objective to achieving closer relations or drawing dividing lines between different communities. The process of eradication and establishment of new boundaries is especially dynamic with regard to Muslim Bulgarians. They perceive themselves as a boundary community, and in fact are regarded as such both by Christian Bulgarians and Turks. In their attempts to overcome that border situation, the middle and younger generations of Muslim Bulgarians in the Middle and Eastern Rhodopes have started to express more frequently a Bulgarian identity. The elder Muslim Bulgarians as well as the younger ones in the regions of Gotse Delchev, Madan, Rudozem, place their Muslim belonging more frequently in the center of their personal and group identity. Thus, depending on the specific context, some features loose their role as distinguishing identifiers for communities and individuals, while others start to exercise a stronger impact.

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