Sociology and Anthropology

The research sought to examine the understanding and attitudes regarding traditional food products in Romania and the knowledge, attitude, habits and modes of consumption of the four selected traditional products, candidates for the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status: Telemea de Marginimea Sibiului, Gem sasesc de rabarbar, Scrumbie afumata de Delta Dunarii and Pita de Pecica respectively.

Hrana iese din spațiul domestic, încetează să rămână intimă și devine un bun public, un patrimoniu colectiv regional. [...] Produsele de tip terroir [...] locale sau tipice se identifică printr-o legătură ramificată cu teritoriul, valoarea sa compunându-se din dimensiuni complementare [...]. Terroir  încorporează „localitatea” atât din punct de vedere al istoriei culturale, căreia i se atribuie moștenirea unor forme de cunoaștere tradițională, cât și din punct de vedere al teritoriului fizic, asociat unor condiții naturale particulare.

The article sets to explore some of the social dimensions of ethnic minority food in Bucharest: the presence of minorities on the entrepreneurial food scene of Bucharest, the domestic food experience of immigrants and the international mobility of specific food products. Complementary, the study looks at the role of the food industry and of the local food actors in the ethnicised marketing of food products and public eating venues.
The study is based on a collective research part of the project New Minorities in Bucharest (Association Mişcarea pentru Acţiune şi Iniţiativă Europeană Bucharest and Telemark Institute Oslo).

The paper discusses the symbolic capital of Saxonness in the Romanian and Transylvanian public sphere and its uses as a political and cultural resource. I am examining the historical representations of Saxonness, and the local, national and European context in which they are activated and re-signified, acquiring contemporary meanings. I focus on the mechanisms behind the political support of Klaus Johannis, representative of The German Democratic Forum in Romania, the Saxon mayor of the city of Sibiu (Transylvania), currently serving his third four-year long mandate. My analysis will attempt to capture the relation between his noteworthy success as elected local representative and the apparently contradictory local demographic evolution: a Saxon minority whose numbers dropped severely in the last decades, reaching a lower limit of under 2% of the total local population. The study explores some of the possible mechanisms that lie at the foundation of the contemporary political capital of Saxonness in Sibiu, by focusing on the salience of ethnicity in elections media discourse and in the collective imagery as reflected in the Ethnobarometer, supported by historical arguments of the " myth of the Saxon " .

Prezentul volum este compus din două părţi. Prima parte, pe care am intitulat-o “Construcţia sinelui naţional în spaţiile de consum”, analizează formele de expunere a specificului românesc, respectiv englezesc, ca strategii antreprenoriale în economia spaţiilor de consum din Bucureşti. Primul dintre articole îşi concentrează atenţia pe scenografia românităţii gastronomice în restaurantele de profil, în timp ce cel de-al doilea analizează dincolo de display-ul pub-urilor din Bucureşti, investigând “modurile de folosire” ale acestor spaţii în recrearea, departe de casă, a universului recreaţional domestic englezesc. Partea a doua a volumului, “Fluxuri alimentare etnicizate”, se concentrează pe modul în care două grupuri de migranţi rezidenţi în Bucureşti, italieni şi chinezi, apelează la mâncare adusă din ţările de origine pentru a-şi păstra o oarecare coerenţă identitară, ajutându-i să se păstreze departe de un univers culinar românesc care nu îi hrăneşte suficient la nivel simbolic.

Cercetările din prezentul volum, reunite sub titlul de „Peisaje gastro-identitare bucureştene”, fac parte din programul de cercetare Cartografierea Socială a Bucureştiului, organizat de Catedra de Sociologie a Şcolii Naţionale de Studii Politice şi Administrative în
perioada 2010-2011. Pentru a înţelege relevanţa prezentului volum, textul de faţă îşi propune să furnizeze câteva repere care să clarifice contextul dezbaterilor despre alimentaţie în ştiinţele sociale, mai precis modul în care alimentaţia “hrăneşte” diverse paliere identitare.

Abstract
This article is about the voluntary or involuntary contribution of the Roma through the history to the economical and social development in the Romanian space. Over the centuries, Roma have suffered social exclusion, discrimination, slavery and deportations to Nazi and Romanian concentration camps. What is less documented is that they have managed to survive over the centuries as an ethnic group, even becoming privileged in certain fields. The Roma attained a high level of privilege as handicraftsmen in an agrarian cultural space, as army tools providers, as famous musicians and appreciated entertainers; they gained recognition as of being from a different culture and speaking another language. Therefore, this article is part of a series of analyses of Roma contribution to economic and social development of the societies that they live in, focusing on Romania – home of the largest population of Roma in Europe . I have decided to start with Roma slavery for two reasons: first of all, Roma were first mentioned in Romanian history as slaves and second, the role and economic contribution of the slaves in the Romanian Principalities are highly relevant for the current situation of the Romanian Roma. This article makes use of the available literature on slavery of Roma ethnic groups in the Romanian Principalities as well as other materials related to Roma history, including anthropological and sociological research.
Keywords: cost, Roma, romanian principalities, slavery.