From Carasovan to Croat: The ‘Ethnic Enigma’ of a (Re)Invented Identity in Romania

Abstract

This paper discusses a unique case in recent Romanian history of an identity shift from Carasovans to Croats and the complex socio-political context which made it possible. Given their debated ethnic origins, the identity of Carasovans is considered an ‘ethnic enigma’. The aim of our research is to offer a critical interpretation of the dynamics of ethnic identification of the Carasovans. In particular, we discuss the processes of national and ethnic identification in order to reveal how the Carasovan community was recently reinvented along the lines of the Croat identity. In close connection to these processes, the paper examines the political, economic and cultural elements involved in the dynamics of Carasovans' self-identification.

Acknowledgements

We thank the reviewers and editors of JBNES for their useful suggestions for improving our paper. We also express our gratitude to Bruce Mitchell at the UK's Office for National Statistics for his valuable comments on the text and the maps included in the paper.

Notes

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^[8] Ibid.

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^[61] Ibid.

^[62] Ibid., p. 672.

^[63] D. Winland, ‘The politics of desire and disdain: Croatian identity between “home” and “homeland”’, American Ethnologist, 29(3), 2002, pp. 693–718.

^[64] A. Gamlen, ‘The emigration state and the modern geopolitical imagination’, Political Geography, 27, 2008, pp. 843, 851.

^[65] Institutul pentru studierea problemelor minoritatilor nationale [Institute for the Study of National Minority Problems], op. cit.

^[66] Creţan, op. cit.

^[67] Mândroane, op. cit., pp. 75–76.

^[68] J. D. Marinović and S. Zrinščak, ‘Religion within and beyond borders: the case of Croatia’, Social Compass, 53, 2006, pp. 279–290.

^[69] Ibid., p. 281.

^[70] Zajednistvo Hrvata u Rumunjskoj [Union of Croats from Romania] Archives, Intervju vlc. m. Tjinkula za HRT [Interview with priest Marian Tincul from Lupac for the Croatian TV HRT], 2013,  < http://www.zhr-ucr.ro/index.php?option = com_content&task = view&id = 889&Itemid = 293> (accessed 8 September 2012).

^[71] M. M. Deleanu, ‘Dialog cu Petru Neiescu, Cluj Napoca 18 martie 1998’ [Interview with Petru Neiescu, Cluj Napoca 18 March 1998], in M. M. Deleanu (ed.), Însemnari despre caraşoveni [Writings about Carasovans], Banatica, Reşiţa, 1999, pp. 97–110.

^[72] Will Kymlicka, Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, Citizenship, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001, pp. 28–29.

^[73] M. M. Deleanu, ‘Schimburi culturale cu Croatia si croati dupa 1990, interviu cu Milan Radan’ [Cultural exchanges with Croatia and the Croats—interview with Milan Radan], in M. M. Deleanu (ed.), Însemnari despre caraşoveni [Writings about Carasovans], Banatica, Reşiţa, 1999, pp. 83–90.

^[74] Ibid., p. 87.

^[75] Kymlicka, op. cit., p. 20.

^[76] Richard Jenkins, Rethinking Ethnicity: Arguments and Explorations, Sage, London, 1997.

^[77] Conzen et al., op. cit., p. 5.

^[78] Simu, op. cit.; Creţan, op. cit.; Mândroane, op. cit.; Manea-Grgin, Povijest karaševskih Hrvata, op. cit.

^[79] Mihăilescu, op. cit.

^[80] Allcock, op. cit., pp. 686–687.

^[81] Anderson, op. cit.; Hobsbawm and Ranger, op. cit.; Conzen et al., op. cit.; Brubaker, op. cit.

^[82] Nagel, ‘Constructing ethnicity’, op. cit.; Stroschein, op. cit.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Remus Creţan

Remus Creţan is Professor of Geography at West University of Timisoara. His research interests include ethnic studies, historical geography, toponomastics and social–economic change.

Paul Kun

Paul Kun is Reader at West University of Timisoara. His research interests include political anthropology, theory of nationalism and political ethics.

Lucian Vesalon

Lucian Vesalon is Lecturer in Political Theory at West University of Timisoara. His recent work is focused on political ecology and anti-industrial development protests in Central and Eastern Europe.