ABSTRACT
We are overwhelmed through different channels that we are “different” from the “Other.” Being categorized as “different” is more than a frame through which we understand the world, but it is one of the factors which define, cause and influence different social processes on a local level.
This chapter deals with the strategies of dealing with the Roma minority in a rural Transylvanian locality using a relational approach. In this village, nowadays there are no clear spatial borders between the Hungarian majority and the Roma communities; nevertheless, the mental maps of the inhabitants still bear a separation between different groups. While physical borders (river) and symbolic boundaries (ethnicity) are maintained, these are continuously crossed during everyday interactions.
I interpret the practice of Godparenthood between the Hungarians and the Roma as a form of symbolic bridge: Roma parents often chose a Hungarian couple as godparents for their newborn children. Godparenthood relations extend the social network of the Roma families; contribute to the maintenance and reinforcement of social cohesion of the whole community by granting new content to the labor relationships between different ethnic groups, transforming the “Stranger” (with clear boundaries) into a familiar category (with blurred boundaries).
