Laszlo Peter's paper builds upon the data of an empirical study, participant observation and interviews. He sketches the ethnical identity construction strategies in a poor gypsy community in Moldova. He claims that this strategy in the Tatroseni community stands in strong relation with two groups of factors. First, with the historical, social and economical context these people live in, and second, with the classification practice of the romanian population. His conclusion is that the self-knowledge of the Tatroseni gypsies is strong and two-fold: it is formed by the strategies of (forced) locking in, social identification and differentiation.
Laszlo Peter is a sociologist, and teaches at the Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.