Process and practice: groupness, ethnicity, and habitus in Carpathian Rus’

Abstract

This article synthesizes Wimmer's and Brubaker's processual approach to analyzing ethnic groups with Jenkins and Bentley's practice-based theories of ethnicity to explain the role played by socio-emotional experiences and practical concerns in Carpatho-Rusyns, both mobilizing as an ethnic group as well as resisting such mobilization. Data were gathered from interviews and participant observation during the eight months of fieldwork in 10 different villages, towns, and cities in the Prešov region of Slovakia and the Zakarpattia oblast of Ukraine. Carpatho-Rusyns live in an area where borders have changed frequently and where religions, states, and political movements have encouraged the inhabitants’ assimilation to a new or larger group. Rusyns tend to describe ethnicity as instrumentalist theorists do, that is, something largely produced as a result of struggles over territory, resources, and political power. Nevertheless, they evince a profound emotional connection to their language, land, and spirituality. This emotional connection manifests itself among “ethnopolitical entrepreneurs” as well as among the general population, but only motivates explicit political organization among the former.

Keywords:

• Rusyn
• ethnicity
• habitus
• practice theory

Notes

1. One of the trickiest translation issues surrounds reference to Ukraine's Zakarpattia oblast. Rusyns have called this region Podkarpatska Rus’, or Subcarpathian Rus’ in English, since the nineteenth century. They conceptualized the region based on how they are situated geographically within it: south of, or under, the Carpathians. On the other hand, “Za” or “across,” as in “Zakarpattia,” is how the region is viewed from Kyiv. The two names are not completely synonymous however. Historically, the use of Subcarpathian Rus’ has encompassed not only the Zakarpattia oblast but also regions of Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Romania. It is also the name of the easternmost territory of interwar Czechoslovakia. Because of this history, many Rusyns inside and outside of Ukraine continue to refer to the Zakarpattia oblast as Subcarpathia. Zakarpattia is usually found translated as “Transcarpathia” in English; however the area being referred to in each text could be either the larger historical region or the contemporary Ukrainian oblast. What is more, in 2008, a Rusyn activist group, the Republic of Subcarpathian Rus’ (RSR), declared the autonomy of the Zakarpattia Oblast, and in 2009, they announced they had formed their own government. The RSR conceives of the Zakarpattia Oblast as an autonomous republic – either as an autonomous region within Ukraine or as an independent state. They do not see this republic as encompassing any regions outside of the current Zakarpattia oblast. For purposes of clarity, I use Carpathian Rus’ to refer to the northeastern arc of the Carpathians, foothills, and river basins where people who identify as Rusyn currently live. I will use Zakarpattia when referring specifically to the current Zakarpattia oblast in Ukraine and Transcarpathia when referring to the Habsburg/Hungarian Kingdom-ruled region and era.

2. See also the 2002 Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, Paul Robert Magocsi and Ivan Pop, editors, for an in-depth overview.

3. 2001. ukrcensus.gov.ua/results/general/nationality/zakarpatia/.

4. This demographic group largely espoused a civic nationalism as opposed to an ethnic nationalism (Kohn 1944; Shulman 2004), although elements of ethnic nationalism were present in some.

5. Due to the majority of respondents to this questions living in the Prešov region, it should more narrowly be considered as a Prešov region cultural model of Rusyn ethnicity. These themes were also echoed, however, in less-structured interviews among additional Rusyns in the Zakarpattia oblast and among Rusyns in Serbia.

6. The designation “Slovak” includes eastern Slovak dialects.

7. There are many villages in Zakarpattia with significant Hungarian, Romanian, Roma, or Slovak populations, but linguistic analyses in these villages were beyond the scope of this study. Although there are many Hungarian inhabitants of Uzhhorod and Mukachevo, I only heard Hungarian spoken in public if I specifically went to a Hungarian-owned establishment.

8. A thorough analysis of these political forces is beyond the scope of this paper but are treated in depth from varied historical perspectives in such texts as (Doroshenko and Gerus 1975; Magocsi 1978; Dyrud 1992; Shandor 1997; Subtelny 2002; Michna 2004; Magocsi and Pop 2005; Pop 2005).

9. http://portal.statistics.sk/files/table-10.pdf.

10. Andy Warhol's parents immigrated to the USA from the Rusyn village of Miková. The Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art is located in nearby Medzilaborce.

11. Lansdowne (2008) analyzes the myriad historical, social, political, and economic reasons these competing discourses remain in circulation and relevant.

12. Pace Yelvington's (1991) critique of Bentley and Bourdieu relating practice to ethnicity, see also Banks (1996, 45).