NetRom · Early Marriage between Dynamism of Social Network and Legal Autonomy: The case of transnational Romanian Roma

Early Marriage between Dynamism of Social Network and Legal Autonomy: The case of transnational Romanian Roma

The issue of early marriage in Roma communities has been politicized through a negative view of reified cultural practices. In other words, the widespread idea that all young Roma women marry early regularly provokes tensions between majority societies and Roma communities. It is therefore important for society to have scientific data about the reality of early marriage but also which explains its internal rationality. The Net-Rom project has proposed a new approach, situated at the crossroads of social anthropology and network analysis, in an attempt to include the issue of early marriage in the analysis of a human group, in terms of history of kinship and social networks. The project had three objectives: - First, the project investigated whether, beyond political discourse, early marriage has an impact on the ethnic boundaries between Roma and non-Roma. - Second, the project has raised the possibility for Roma people to have an autonomous matrimonial law. - Third and last the project studied representations of marriage within one Roma community, with regard to the practice of early marriage. The main conclusion of the action is that age at marriage is not a Roma cultural characteristic. The fluctuation of the age at marriage is the result of a balance between the internal dynamics of social reproduction and emancipation of women and young people within a group and of external factors such as persecutions by the majority society or the economic pressure on the community.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union