Ethnic belonging, kinship, and wealth: local politics of descent and group formation in a Roma community

The present study investigates the case of a Hungarian-speaking Roma community in a Szekler village (Transylvania) from the perspectives of (contested) ethnic belonging, kinship, and different forms of capital, and presents the struggles of a relatively newly formed group within this community for finding new social and ethnic positions in relation with their Roma fellows and also with the Hungarian/Szekler majority. The members of this new group are the most successful in basket weaving, the special craft of local Roma, while they also share a common family history when they link their descent to a funding father who raised 11 children. The family histories of the descent – besides referring to supposed Hungarian ancestors/relatives – are told in terms of work ethic, education, and religious life that all resulted in wealth, thus creating a new local ethnic group whose members constantly contest their Roma ethnic belonging and delimit themselves from the ordinary Roma. This in-betweenness unfolds the certainties and uncertainties of social and economic life, the identities between self, family, and community. The case can be perceived as an example of the dynamics of local social life and offer a view on the renegotiation of group formation and ethnic boundaries.