Ethnic Identity and Marital Choice Among Gypsies/Roma with Turkish Identity in Bulgaria

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Pages: 73-89
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/QKBJ9210

Abstract:

The aim of this article is to develop the existing knowledge on the still not sufficiently studied community of Gypsies/Roma with Turkish identity in Bulgaria regarding the correlations between their specific ethnic self-consciousness and marital choice. The paper discusses how the construction of their identity influences their marital choice, and how the marital choice, determined by group understandings of endogamy and exogamy, functions as a strategy for maintaining the common group unity. The applied research methodology combines historical analysis and ethnographic approach that includes empirical materials collected during field studies in the period 2006–2019 in different settlements in North Central, Northeastern and Southern Bulgaria.

Keywords:

Gypsies/Roma; preferred ethnic identity; marital choice; endogamy; exogamy

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