Project Group F: Associated Projects, Project F3

The Gabor people – Horizontal and vertical mobility among service nomads in Transylvania (Romania)

Programme

This case study is based on the outcomes of the A5 Project (2001–2004) relating to interactions between endogamous, mobile service nomads and the major societies surrounding them within the area around the Black Sea. The case study concentrates in particular on the analysis of the various horizontal and vertical forms of mobility that exist within a gypsy group, known as The Gabor, in the Tirgu Mures area in Transylvania, Romania.

Horizontal mobility refers to spatial movement, i.e. the movement of people from one place to another within a geographical region. Vertical mobility refers to social movement, i.e. the change of social status and roles within a community hierarchy. As its key focus, this case study will look at the interrelations between these two types of mobility.

In order to link the spheres of geographical space and society, social advancement patterns will be ascertained through the study of horizontal mobility patterns within the following areas: service nomadism in the economic domain, marriage mobility and family relocation in the domain of social organisation, churchgoing and pilgrimage in the religious domain. This must looked at in conjunction with three key factors, namely wealth, ancestry and religiousness, which determine both internal and external social status and also create or test different strategies of social advancement.

A second focal point of the case study concentrates on reconstructing the historical development of the relationship between, firstly, The Gabor people and other gypsy groups, and secondly, between The Gabor people and the local majority population. In particular, the typically independent and mobile characteristics of economic activity demonstrated by service nomads as well as the highly flexible and creative manner in which new business niches are found within a surrounding society that is constantly changing raises the question concerning the relationship between adaptation strategies and the conservative retention of social patterns.

In order to understand and clarify the complex interrelations between the nomadic and sedentary people populating the same geographical space, and thereby making a key contribution to the general question posed by the SFB 586, ethnographic research methods, such as participative observation, interviewing, discussion with experts, statistical analysis, and the study of sources, will be employed.

http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~ftf

Publications

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Streck

with T. Maranhao: Translation and Ethnography. Arizona. In print.

ed.: Zigeuner des Schwarzmeerbebiets. Eine Bibliographie = Materialien des SFB "Differenz und Integration" 2 (2003). •  Systematisierungsansätze aus dem Bereich der ethnologischen Forschung. In: Mitteilungen des SFB "Differenz und Integration" 1 (2002), 1–9.

Wörterbuch der Ethnologie. Wuppertal 2000.

Ethnologie und Nationalsozialismus. Gehren 2000.

Fröhliche Wissenschaft Ethnologie. Wuppertal 1997.

Die Halab. Wuppertal 1996.


Fabian Jacobs, M.A.

Co-Author: Zigeuner des Schwarzmeerbebiets. Eine Bibliographie = Materialien des SFB "Differenz und Integration" 2 (2003).

Franz Remmel: Nackte Füße auf steinigen Straßen. Zur Leidensgeschichte der rumänischen Roma. Review. In: Zeitschrift für Siebenbürgische Landeskunde. Gundelsheim 2005, 246–247.


The associated project is the continuation of A5.