The social construction of ethnic and religious identity among the Hungarian Baptists in Transylvania

Abstract

How humans act, react and interact with others largely depends on situational perception. People in multi-cultural and multi-ethnic communities perceive their social world more pronouncedly in ethnic or religious terms. In their daily lives they usually interact with members of the other groups without any difficulty. Yet, under the surface people belonging to various groups are always aware of the “otherness” of other groups and are always ready to put up the fences when ethno-cultural or religious tension arises. The inductive approach taken during this research pursued to understand how humans perceive and construct their social identity in ethnic and religious terms. How does religious identity interact, connect, and differ from ethnic identity? The thesis is based on the Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) of semi-structured field interviews, which were collected in four carefully chosen Hungarian Baptist Churches from Transylvania/Romania. Applying the theoretical framework offered by recent social cognitive studies of social movements this thesis shows how three cognitive aspects of identity (social identification, feeling of belonging and social boundaries) shape the construction of ethnic and religious identity at individual, social and cultural level. It also identifies some of the main reasons why the religious identity of the Hungarian Baptists in Transylvania is more salient than their ethnic identity. The novelty of this study comes from the application of social cognitive framework to a movement which distinguishes itself in both religious and ethnic terms. By doing this the current research can identify certain mechanisms behind the construction of complex multidimensional identities.

Date of Award	1 Jan 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	King's College London
Supervisor	Marat Shterin (Supervisor)