Publisher: ISPMN Institutul pentru Studierea Problemelor Minorităţilor Naţionale

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Cemeteries and Dying in a Multi-religious and Multi-ethnic Village from the Danube Delta

Cemeteries and Dying in a Multi-religious and Multi-ethnic Village from the Danube Delta

Author(s): Sorin Gog / Language(s): English

Keywords: Multi-ethnic villages of the Danube Delta; Cemetaries; culture; Romania; Cultural-ethnic identities; Burial practices;

This paper focuses on the way the new post-socialist cosmology is restructuring religion, shaping the religious mentalities of contemporary Romania. I am trying to investigate this by analyzing the ways the different local politics of ethnic and cultural identities remodel the perspectives on after-life and burial practices. My research aims at analyzing the symbolic architecture of the discourse that surrounds and penetrates the dead body. It focuses also on the way the cemetery is transformed into a micro-world that reflects the religious, ethnic and cultural struggles of the new post-socialist world. Along this line of reasoning I chose for research the multi-ethnic and multi-religious village of Sch., situated in the south-eastern part of Romania. Old-Orthodox Lipovenians (divided into two antagonistic religious communities, popovtsi and bezopopovtsi) and their eternal rivals, Orthodox Romanians, have to co-habit the village and share the local resources with the newly emerged community of Lipovenian-Romanian Adventists. What seems even harder to do is to share the after-life and cemetery space, where the borderlines between these four communities become even stronger. The instrumentalization of the symbolic architecture of after-life that penetrates the dead body and the fragmentation of the cemetery space that accompanied this process mirror the important transformations of the Romanian social system and the struggle to enact the different post-socialist politics of ethnic and cultural identities.

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Dual Citizenship in Central and Eastern Europe

Dual Citizenship in Central and Eastern Europe

Author(s): Irina Culic / Language(s): English

Keywords: Dual citizenship policies; Transnationalism; Extra-territorial nationalism; Minority protection; Eastern-Western Europe;

The paper provides a historical-sociological investigation of post-communist dual citizenship policies in Central and Eastern Europe, proposing to conceive of citizenship as a means of state building. While dual citizenship policies in Western Europe generally took an inclusionary form, generated by the stringent need to incorporate and assimilate foreign immigrants, and to come to terms with their colonial and world expanding capitalist past, in Central and Eastern Europe they have essentially been differentialist, putting emphasis on ethno-cultural distinctions and privileged historical relationship with a state. In an attempt to synthesize the dominant motives governing the strategies chosen by these states, in the second part of the paper dual citizenship practices are inventoried according to a typology that reveals different state rationalities. Finally, an examination of asymmetries in dual citizenship aims both to further the state building argument, and to point to the tensions inherent in dual citizenship legislation.

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Analysis of Funding allocated to National Minority Organizations

Analiza finanţărilor alocate organizaţiilor minorităţilor naţionale

Author(s): Magdolna Mohácsek / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: National Minority Organizations; State Funding; Ethnic minorities;

The study presents the evolution of state financing allocated directly to the central organizations of citizens belonging to national minorities between 1994-2008, as well as the financing of certain interethnic programs and projects, based on calls for proposals, between 2005-2008. After overviewing the legal basis, the beneficiaries and the eligible costs, we present the evolution of the amounts distributed during the above mentioned periods. In order to have a clearer image of the actual dynamics of financing, we took into consideration the inflation rate between 1995-2008. The amounts distributed during these years have been recalculated at the 2008 exchange rate. Based on these calculations and considering the number of citizens belonging to a certain national minority, we compare the amounts distributed to the different organizations.

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On Transylvanian Jews. An Outline of a Common History

On Transylvanian Jews. An Outline of a Common History

Author(s): Attila Gidó / Language(s): English

Keywords: Transylvanian Jews; Judaizers; Equal rights; Civil and religious emancipation; Parish Community Organisation; Exodus; Identity; Education; Anti-Semitism; Public life;

Many and from many angles have discussed the history of the Transylvanian Jewry. Yet the matter has not lost its topicality, and the possibilities of interpretation continue to be there. The paper deals with the history of the Transylvanian Jews as a history of integration, and creates a synthesis of the body of knowledge gathered until the present day in the light of that point of view, as a function of identity/ies and loyalty/ies. It covers a large time frame from the first Jews settled in the Transylvanian territory to the present-day situation. The author describes and analyses the most important events like the 1623 Edict of Prince Gabriel Bethlen (1613-1629), or the issue of the assimilation in the 19th century. The paper deals with the modern anti-Semitism, Holocaust, identity problems and with the Sionism as well. The paper makes an attempt to create a synthesis that can provide orientation in the matter for a larger audience, with only a sporadic knowledge about Transylvanian Jewry, as well as for the professionals of the field.

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Muslims in Romania: Integration Models, Categorization and Social Distance

Muslims in Romania: Integration Models, Categorization and Social Distance

Author(s): Gyula Kozák / Language(s): English

Keywords: Muslims in Romania; ethno-religious identity; Media representation; Islamic fundamentalism; migrants;

The paper takes a stance toward acknowledging social distance as a prerequisite of incorporation, but it also argues that immigrants can be used as the "other" for debating "indigenous" identities, loyalties, and affiliations. More precisely, the paper looks on the struggle between different proponents of Islamic religious practice as they construct the "other" and themselves in a shifting landscape of global meanings regarding Islam. When associated with the 'indigenous', the presence of the immigrants can bring to the fore internal tensions of an ethnic community and force its members to redefine their ethnic allegiances, or establish different degrees or kinds of ethnic, regional or religious 'cultural content'. This is the case especially when a quasi standardized global discourse is at hand and different models of institutional integration pertain to different categories of Muslims. The paper describes two models of integration and two systems of categorization that these models engender.

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Survival strategies in a Roma community. Case Study: Community of "Dig", Orastie, Hunedoara County

Strategii de supravieţuire într-o comunitate de romi. Studiu de caz. Comunitatea „Digului”, Orăştie, judeţul Hunedoara

Author(s): Iulia-Elena Hossu / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Hunedoara county; Roma community; Roma "problem"; Education and social assistance for Roma people; Sources of income;

The study presented here is the result of an anthropological field research undertook in the summer of 2004, continued by re-entrances in the field for almost three years, 2005, 2006 and 2007, in the area of Orăştie, Hunedoara county. The research considered here was lead by PhD. Professor Enikő Magyari-Vincze, to which the author participated as a field researcher. Although it does not have the purpose of an exhaustive analysis regarding the surviving strategies to which the members of the community resort through various contexts, in everyday life, it can be considered a guiding mark of an analysis concerned with different aspects which describe the life of this community.

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The political Representation of National Minorities in Romania

Reprezentarea politică a minorităţilor naţionale în România

Author(s): István Gergő Székely / Language(s): English,Romanian

Keywords: National minorities in Romania; Representation; Participation of minorities in election process; Discriminatory nature of the candidature conditions;

The paper consists of two main parts. The first part reviews the evolution of the most important aspects of Romanian electoral legislation concerning the representation of national minorities, both at the national and the local level. The second part presents the results obtained by the organizations of 19 minorities from Romania at the national elections (1990-2008) and the elections to the local and county councils (1996-2008). During the two decades that passed since the fall of Communism, Romanian electoral legislation underwent multiple changes, with both positive and negative consequences on the participation of minorities. Among the negative changes we have to mention the introduction (and subsequent raising) of electoral thresholds, and the adoption of double standards regarding candidatures for organizations represented in Parliament and those outside Parliament (obviously, with way more difficult conditions for the latter category). The higher thresholds introduced after 2000 had a negative impact on the number of minority representatives in the local councils, and with the exception of Hungarians and Germans, the minorities disappeared from the county councils. The double standards regarding candidature considerably watered down political competition within the minority communities, almost to the extent of granting political monopoly for the organizations in Parliament over the communities they claim to represent. On the other hand, Romanian electoral laws also contain special rules that provide electoral affirmative action for minorities. In the Chamber of Deputies the presence of minorities is almost guaranteed, due to the existence of special seats that can be obtained by reaching a symbolic alternative threshold. Affirmative action is present at the level of the local councils too, but it is far from being efficient. On the contrary, the special rule at the local level is ill-conceived: it is unable to counteract the underrepresentation of minorities, moreover, it can even deprive them of some seats they would have obtained, had they been treated like the political parties. Taking into account the underrepresentation of minorities (and the negative trend concerning this), the discriminatory nature of the candidature conditions and the inefficiency of the special electoral rule, the conclusions of the study call for a thorough redesign of the Romanian system of minority representation.

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Transnational Ways of Life, Secularization and Sects. Interpreting Novel Religious Phenomena of the Moldavian Csángó Villages

Câteva elemente ale schimbării perspectivei religioase: secularizarea, transnaţionalismul şi adoptarea sectelor în satele de ceangăi din Moldova

Author(s): Lehel Peti / Language(s): English,Romanian

Keywords: Transnational Ways of Life; Secularization; Religious Phenomena; Moldova; Csángó Villages; Tradition;

The paper aims to describe phenomena of modernization in Moldavian Csango villages in the context of religiosity. It interprets the most significant shifts in the life forms and traditional religiosity, the change of central values, tendencies of secularization and the emergence of sectarianism. The author argues that the religious experience gradually evades community and (Church) legitimation, so that the ever-larger individualization of religious experiences and conceptualization leads to the pluralization of worldviews. The impersonalization of social control, the changing norms that affect everyday life, the role change of religious values, the individualization of communities, basically the transforming forces of modernization on society disable the catholic church to fully integrate the Csango village population, who in rising numbers attend new teachings that offer an updated worldview, as well as a brand new set of community/religious norms. The author argues, that sectarianism/sectarianization is a part of modernizational strategies, and that as a consequence of transnational life forms, sects have become part of social mobility.

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History of Romani Study and Roma Education in Romania (1990-2012)

Istoricul studiului limbii rromani şi al şcolarizării rromilor în România (1990–2012)

Author(s): Gheorghe Sarau / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Romani study; Roma education; Romania; 1990-2012; University level education; Roma identity; School education;

The achievements in Romania regarding education for Roma are, of course, undeniable, those related to the identity reconstruction through the study of the language in the institutional system are also world-leading, the measures to promote and form a proactive Rroma intellectuality are good. Undoubtedly, the many human resources formed and present in the educational system are more than necessary, the impressive working tools for teaching Rromani from the kindergarten to the university level are obvious, the 10-13% Roma students studying in mother tongue Romani and over 7-11% Roma students in the general number of preschools and pupils in the pre-university system who attend school and assume indifferent Roma identity impress in a pleasant way etc., therefore, they all speak for themselves, both quantitatively and qualitatively. With all these unprecedented gains, however - relative to the large number of Roma in Romania (possibly two and a half million, with and without Roma identity assumed continuously) - there is still much to be done so that we can speak of more than 2-3% of high school students with a Roma identity assumed by a percentage of Roma children in grades I-IV higher than the current one (13%) and who do not decrease, as at present, to grades V -VIII (9-11%), let's talk about the presence of more than 10%, as now, of Roma preschoolers compared to the other 90% of preschoolers among other ethnicities, we can have many more kindergarten classes and classes primary education to fully study in their own Rromani language, to register as few segregated classes as possible and to find as few discretionary attitudes fromschool administrators and local authorities when talking about co-opment, (Roma inspectors, Roma executives, Roma school mediators, Roma teachers, Roma educators and teachers, Roma school counselors, etc.), and last but not least, when we will learn to be more empathic and better living and promoting diversity (linguistic / cultural / ethnic / historical / religious / physical / gender).

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Prospects of Economic. Anthropology in Interethnic Relations Research

Etnicitate şi economie. Perspective de antropologie economică în cercetarea relaţiilor interetnice

Author(s): Csongor Könczei,Mihály Sárkány,Enikö Vincze / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Anthropology; Inter-ethnic relations; ethnicity and economics; Stigmatized ethnicity; gender inequality;

By summing up the literature of social anthropology the article provides a broader perspective on the proposed theme. It is especially important that by translating this study Romanian readers have the chance to get acquainted with a small segment of the scientific activity of the researcher. The study of stigmatized ethnicity, gender inequality and precarious work signed by Enikő Vincze, professor of anthropology and gender studies at Babeş-Bolyai University, is a text based on research into social exclusion, multiple discrimination in an East European context, with a look focused on Roma women. Activist research along with the involvement of the researcher in the work of several civic organizations provides a new insight into the current scientific field.

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Exclude and Exploit. The Obligatory Work of the Jews in Romania and Hungary during the Second World War

Excluşi şi exploataţi. Munca obligatorie a evreilor din România şi Ungaria în timpul celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial

Author(s): László Csősz,Attila Gidó / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Obligatory work; Jews in Romania and Hungary; World War II; Labor service;

This paper proposes to compare the ideological and legal frameworks of the Romanian and Hungarian Jewish labor service system. The analysis brings into focus Transylvania, a territory which was divided between Hungary and Romania in the time of the Second World War. Between 1940-1944 the northern part of Transylvania was part of Hungary, while the southern territories belonged to Romania. This territory split in two had a Jewish population with common characteristics like their Hungarian language and culture and their socio-cultural background. However, their fate in the time of the Holocaust were totally different.

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Identity Construction in the Turkish and Tatar Communities in Dobrogea

Construcţia identitară la comunităţile turcă şi tătară din Dobrogea

Author(s): Adriana Cupcea / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Turkish and Tatar communities; Romania; Demographic evolution; Communist period; Post-1990 period;

The present study is a primary effort to identify and decript the identitary dynamics of the two most ancient ethnic communities of Romania, the Turks and Tatars. As a context framing, the paper shows the historic and demographic evolution of the Turks and the Tatars all throughout the 20th century. Chronologically, the emphasys falls upon the communist period, to better envisage the way in which political, economic and social changes in the era were reflected in the ethnic and religious structures of the Turks and the Tatars in Dobrogea and consequently to extend on identitary evolutions after 1990. By adding the archive research to journalistic text analysis and field research (interviews, participative observation), the study traces the memory patterns of the communist period, the types of relations and attitudes created in relation to the regime, together with the evolution of self-image and image of the other (Turk-Tatar), generated by the main identitary landmarks: ethnicity, religion, origins, mother tongue and traditions, inside the socialist society as well as after the fall of the communism.

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Transylvanian Hungarians in the Political Space of Hungary and Romania

Erdélyi magyarok a magyarországi és a romániai politikai térben

Author(s): Tamás Kiss,Gergő Barna / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Transylvanian Hungarians; political behaviour; Ethnic parties; National minorities; Hungary and Romania; voting behaviour;

Between 18 May and 8 June, 2013 the authors have collected data from a representative sample of 1,232 Hungarians from Transylvania with the purpose to examine the political behaviour of the aforementioned community within the political spaces of both Hungary and Romania. While closely related to a research project (entitled 'Ethnic parties, voting behaviour') carried out within the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities, the present research has extended its focus to Transylvanian Hungarians' voting behaviour outside Romania. This change of perspective has been necessary because on 26 May 2010 the Hungarian Parliament adopted the amendment to the 1993 Law on Hungarian citizenship by introducing the simplified naturalization procedure, thus enabling Hungarians from the neighbouring countries of Hungary to obtain Hungarian citizenship without residency. Moreover, the new Hungarian election law adopted in November 2011 allows Hungarian citizens without residency in Hungary to vote in the Hungarian Parliamentary elections (on candidates from national party lists). As a consequence, the political, or voting behaviour of Hungarians from Transylvania needs to be analyzed by taking into account this perspective as well.

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Analysis of Existing Migratory Data Production Systems and Major Data Sources in Romania

Analysis of Existing Migratory Data Production Systems and Major Data Sources in Romania

Author(s): Tamás Kiss / Language(s): English

Keywords: Migratory Data Production Systems; Major Data Sources; Population register; Foreigner registers; NIS data;

The study outlines the main features of the Romanian data production system on migration and population stock. The study is part of the country report on Romania elaborated for the following transnational project: SEEMIG Managing Migration and its Effects in South-East Europe - Transnational Actions Towards Evidence Based Strategies. Previously, a common methodology was elaborated by the Demographic Research Institute at the Hungarian Central Statistical Office and other participant research institutes in order to gain comparable descriptions for all eight SEEMIG countries. According to this methodology, we focused in this study both on administrative and statistical data sources.

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Turk, Tatar, Or Turko-Tatar. Challenges to the Identities of Dobruja Turks and Tatars in Post-communism

Turc, tătar sau turco-tătar. Probleme ale identității la turcii și tătarii din Dobrogea, în perioada postcomunistă

Author(s): Adriana Cupcea / Language(s): English,Romanian

Keywords: Turk-Tatar identities; Post-communism period; ethnic community; cultural orientation; Identity overlapping;

This research aims to analyze the use and the references to the terms of Turkish, Tatar or Turkish-Tatar, as a reflection of the argumentative discourse, set up after 1990 in order to legitimize the options for a single ethnic identity, either Turkish or Tartar, or for a double ethnic identity, Turkish-Tatar. At the same time, the research shows the chronological alternation of these options from the level of the official discourse until the community level, identifying the social, political, economic, cultural or symbolic factors that determined this sequence in the post-communist era. From the methodological point of view, the research is based on the semantic analysis applied on the texts published in the newspapers of the Turkish and Tatar communities, Hakses (The Authentic Voice) and Karadeniz (The Black Sea). In the same time I used a series of documents issued by the representative organizations of the two ethnic groups, some published, some original unpublished documents. Finally, the research is based on a large number of semi-structured interviews with members of the two communities, conducted during successive field campaigns initiated in early 2013, the debate over a Turkish, Tatar or Turkish-Tatar identity being a recurring topic, self-discovered to the researcher in the field.

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Do you think Romani (or) think in Hungarian? Analysis of Think Structures on the Basis of Publicity on the Szekler Flag Debate

Románul (a)vagy magyarul gondolkodni? Gondolkodási struktúrák elemzése a székely zászló-vitáról közölt publicisztikák alapján

Author(s): Tamás Győri / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Szekler flag; Hungarian Székely community of Romania; Minorities in Romania;

The present study summarizes the debate's history on Szekler flag in one year based on more important national and regional dealy newspapers/news sites. The first part of the text gives a summary of history on debate on grounds of news, the second part aims to explore the characteristics of structures of thinking through content analysis on publicism.

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‘When Someone came and started to sing, the others sang too, Accompanying Him on the Violin’ – Living and Working Conditions in the onetime Roma Colony in Oradea and its Liquidation in the 1970s

‘When Someone came and started to sing, the others sang too, Accompanying Him on the Violin’ – Living and Working Conditions in the onetime Roma Colony in Oradea and its Liquidation in the 1970s

Author(s): Zsuzsa Plainer / Language(s): English

Keywords: Oradea; Roma colony; State Socialism; Working and living conditions; 1970s;

Roma in the Romanian state socialism are a rare subject in present-day Romany studies. Thus, to fill in the blank, this paper recalls and analyses an important moment in the recent past: living and working conditions in a one-time Roma colony in Oradea as well as its liquidation by the communist policies of urbanization in 1977 and 1978. In doing so, I try to investigate whether the widely shared scholarly belief on the relatively high living standards of the Roma during socialism does stay for this particular case. As empirical data show, winding up the Roma colony and forcing its inhabitants to move into blocks of flats did not significantly improve housing conditions of the group; nevertheless, it destroyed their previously existing socio-cultural environment and cut them off from a series of resources. In opposition to the official discourse of communism, living standards after the removal were not raised but lowered, which - in lack of coherent urbanization policies in the post-socialism - turned the place into an urban ghetto by the 2000s.

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Published Works and Activities undertaken by Gheorghe Sarău between 1980 and 2015

Lucrări publicate şi activităţi întreprinse de Gheorghe Sarău în perioada 1980–2015

Author(s): Gheorghe Sarau / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Gheorghe Sarău; Publishing works and literature; Romany language; Ethnic minorities studies;

Gheorghe Sarău (Romania - Bucharest, born in 1956) has been since 1992 a professor doctor at the department of Romany Language and Literature, at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures (University of Bucharest). At the same time, he has been a counselor for Romany language and Roma at the Direction for Minorities - Ministry of National Education (1992-present). After graduating from university (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures - Russian and Hungarian languages Departments; Bulgarian and Spanish as optional courses) in 1983, Gheorghe Sarău began to study Romany individually, language which he taught at the Normal School of Bucharest from 1990to 1994, to a group of future primary school teachers. On 28 September 1998 he became a Doctor of Philology at the University of Bucharest. The doctorate was obtained under the guidance of prof. Lucia Wald in the Indo-European studies field, on the subject of Tinsmiths Roma Language. Gheorghe Sarău attended several training programmes (1990-2000) in the field of Romany Language, under the guidance of Prof. Marcel Courthiade (professor at INALCO Paris) and of Prof. Rajko Djurić -poet and the President of National Roma Union, in Finland (1991), Italy (1992), France (1993 1994, 1995), Germany (1998). He was also invited by Professors Courthiade and Djurić to teach with them Romany courses in Germany (1999 and 2002), at the International Courses of Romany Language, Literature and History. Gheorghe Sarău published his first article in 1982, as a student, and his first book was published in1992 (the first Romany dictionary in Romania - Mic dicționar rom-romîn, Kriterion Publishing House). Over the years, he has published over 70 titles, most of them individually, but also as collective works. He has also played an important role in the standardization of Romany language in Romania, in the organization and development of the Romany studies at the pre-school, school, high school and university level. In October 1992, he introduced the first Optional Course of Romany Language at the University of Bucharest and in 1997 he created the Department of Romany Studies at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures in Bucharest. He also founded the Distance Learning Department for Romany Language, which helped training over 600 Romany Language school teachers. He has also managed the developing and implementation of strategic programmes of the Ministry of Education in Romania. In recognition for his outstanding contribution to promoting constantly the Romany Language -through writings, through the introduction and consolidation of the Romany language education and through the initiatives regarding the general education of Roma - he has received several awards(Hidalgo Award - Spain, 1999; The Republic of Italy President's Award - Italy, 1999; Decoration and diploma on the occasion of the celebration of 25 years from the founding of the Hindi Language Department in Romania, awarded by HE the Indian Ambassador, Rajiv Dogra, on 29 March 2000, etc.).

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Content and Teaching of the Hungarian Language Subject in the Framework of Romanian education

A magyar nyelv tantárgy tartalma és oktatása a romániai oktatásszabályozási keretben

Author(s): Edith Kádár / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Hungarian Language subject in education; Romanian education; Carpathian Basin; School subject; Educational system;

As part of a joint research programme of the Termini Hungarian Language Research Network focussing on the teaching of the Hungarian language (and literature) as a school subject in the Carpathian Basin, this paper presents the Romanian case. It gives an overview of the contents, theoretical and methodological background, legal framework, actors and documents regulating the teaching of Hungarian as a school subject, in the context of the Romanian educational system.

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Asserting ethnicity: the Tatars from Dobruja (Romania)

Asserting ethnicity: the Tatars from Dobruja (Romania)

Author(s): Adriana Cupcea / Language(s): English

Keywords: Tatars; Dobruja; Ethnic minorities; Ethnic identity; Identity reconstruction;

The research is a descriptive analysis of the ethnic identity dynamics of Tatars in Dobruja. We tried to identify how the ethnic identity of the Tatar community of Dobruja, of Sunni Islamic faith was rediscovered and reconfigured after 1990. The research analyses the representative reorganization on ethnic basis that took place after the fall of the communist regime, emphasizing the ways of action and interaction of this organization in the community, through which ethnic and religious traditions, became important elements in the identity reconstruction of Dobruja Tatars during this period. We also followed the way the ethnic specificity articulates in the inner ethnic group, in different social contexts, in the religious life, in linguistic situations, in family relations and in economic contexts. From the methodological point of view, the research is based on the field research (interviews, participative observation) conducted in urban and rural communities of Tatars in Constanța county, where the largest Tatar communities of Dobrogea live.

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