Understanding identity and social change through narrative: withspecial reference to Roma Pentecostalism in Croatia and Serbia

Romani groups—referred to in this thesis as Roma—originated in India over a thousand years ago and now form a minority population throughout Europe. Over the centuries, for complex socio-cultural reasons, ‘host’ societies frequently responded to Roma groups in ways that created marginalization through the mechanisms of forced assimilation, enslavement, death, and genocide. Today, despite vast international attention and allocated financial resources from governments, EU institutions, NGOs, religious entities, as well as the growth of Roma politicians, intellectuals, and grass roots organizations; steps and policies to minimize Romani social isolation continue to make only small or non-existent progress in Southeastern Europe.
Juxtaposed on this reality is the phenomenal rise of Pentecostalism in Roma communities beginning in both Western and Eastern Europe in the 1950s, a process which prior studies have demonstrated is linked to social change and a shift of identities. This thesis is concerned with how Roma work out their new Pentecostal identities within their daily life, and what impact this process has on their society. Thus, the study is guided by the central question: How do Roma Christians in Croatia and Serbia negotiate their identity in their daily lives and across their life course?
Grounded in anthropological studies of Christianity, this ethnography utilizes a narrative epistemology to investigate two Old Romanian speaking Roma communities—populations often referred to as Bayash amongst the scientific community. Making use of life stories, participant-observation, and extensive field work, this research is conducted from the positionality of being in a leadership role in one of the church communities. Through narrative analysis, this study investigates individuals’ meaning-making structures and interpretative frameworks by analysing their claimed identity in their life stories. Prominent themes of suffering, hardship, and trauma emerge from their narratives, as well as Pentecostal claims of miraculous healing and tangible experiences with God. Interacting with both theology and trauma literature within the concept of ‘rupture’, the study provides insight into how meaning-making and therefore identities can be transformed through connecting embodied experiences to re-interpretations of stories in relation to Pentecostal theology. It discusses the extent to which Pentecostal identity and theology are embodied in daily lives, and the various socio-cultural, biological, theological, and psychological factors which may impede this. This analysis thus illuminates how Pentecostalism has been localized in two discrete contexts and further, points to possible directions for future research.