Minorities, Identity and Intermarriage by Lendák-Kabók, Karolina; Klatt, Martin;

Short description:

Intermarriages, uniting partners from diverse social, ethnic, religious, or racial backgrounds, play a pivotal and perhaps conflictual role in shaping group identities. Celebrated by some for fostering social integration, they are perceived by others within ethnic minority circles as a form of acculturation or even assimilation.

Long description:

Intermarriages, uniting partners from diverse social, ethnic, religious, or racial backgrounds, play a pivotal and perhaps conflictual role in shaping group identities. Celebrated by some for fostering social integration, they are perceived by others within ethnic minority circles as a form of acculturation or even assimilation.

This volume delves into the intricate interplay between identity, kin-state identity policies, and intermarriage, particularly among national minorities. By weaving together historical analysis, autoethnography, and sociology, it aims to debunk the myth of homogeneity within European nation-states, spotlighting the rich diversity within minority groups. The book challenges the traditional view of minority groups as monolithic, instead revealing how intermarriage can blur the lines between different identities, thereby enriching our understanding of identity construction and group unity. It provides a nuanced examination of intermarriages that share citizenship yet differ in ethnic or national backgrounds—an area hitherto largely unexplored. The discussion extends to the effects of such unions on both personal and communal identities, addressing underlying tensions, stereotypes, and prejudices. The work further considers how these choices impact language, education, religious practices, and parenting within minority communities, ultimately strengthening the argument for intermarriage as a significant, transformative social practice.

The collection will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Law, Sociology and Minority Studies.

Table of Contents:

0. Introduction  Part I: Changing Perspectives on Intermarriages through History  1.What’s Love Got to Do with It? From the Peril of Mixed Marriages to the Promise of Bilingual Families in Post-War Finland  2. Between Illegality and Approval: Three Cases of Roma Intermarriage in Moldavia, 1800–1855  3. Was it a Mixed Marriage? Legal Files from the Documentary Prose of Tibor Várady  Part II: State Policies around Intermarriages  4. Intermarriage and Multiethnicity among Spanish Roma: Transgressing Problematised Interethnic Divisions  5. Roma in mixed-ethnic partnerships and ethnic identification of their children in 1990, 2011 and 2022, in Hungary  6. Maneuvering between nationalizing policies: ethnically marked choices in the Ukrainian-Hungarian intermarriages in Transcarpathia, Ukraine  7. Bridging the Divide: Interethnic Marriages in Bosnia and Herzegovina  Part III: Negotiating difference: culture, language and identity  8. The Dynamics of Ethnic Self-Identification and Belonging in Slovenian-Italian Minority Mixed Families  9. Marriage Across Borders  10. Building Commonalities and Belonging in Turkish-Kurdish intermarriages in Izmir, Turkey  11. Remarks on Identity in Sorbian-German families in Upper Lusatia: Navigating the First Language as a Criterion for Ethnic Categorisation  12. Kosovo: A Region without Intermarriages  Part IV: Born into intermarriages: impact on children and youth  13. Romanian Mixed Families: From National to Transnational Identities  14. Navigating Identity and Belonging: Young Adults from Mixed Serb-Hungarian Families in Serbia  15. How long should the Christmas tree be decorated? Autoethnographic Study on Growing up in Mixed Marriage Along Croatia-Montenegro Border  16. A Study of Family Language Policy and Intercultural Communication in Estonian-Russian Mixed Households