The paper aims at presenting new information concerning the Ottoman (short timar) tax registry TD 370 from 1530, comprising the Ottoman administrative unit region (beylerbeylik) of Rumelia (the Eastern Balkans, mostly the current-day Bulgarian lands). The historical record TD 370 offers a copious picture of the structure of the Ottoman society and the integration of the Roma into its different strata during the first half of the 16th century. An attempt for interpretation of the data on the geographical distribution and the quantitative parameters concerning the Christian and Muslim Roma, the Roma travellers and Roma settlers making their living through cultivating is offered. In addition, tax obligations and occupations of the Roma in the non-agrarian sphere are discussed as well as the integration of a substantial part of the Roma in the military organisation of the muselems.

The article presents a picture of the Roma in our lands during the times of Ottoman Domination, from the 14th to the 19th century. Regarding these dramatic times, the author has used authentic testimonies and scholarly texts by researchers of the Roma. Their way of life (traditional occupations and skills), their military duties within the empire, the taxation system imposed on them, their attitude to religion, have been studied in the article. The author has traced the specific way in which the Roma fitted into the institutions of the Ottoman Empire, their particularity as a community living parallel with, yet isolated from, the others, and the attitude of those others towards them. During their long centuries of life in the Balkans within the Ottoman Empire, the Roma succeeded in preserving their specific way of life, their crafts and culture, thereby demonstrating their power of endurance.

This article examines the policies of successive regimes towards the Roma communities of Bulgaria, encompassing the Ottoman period, the independent Kingdom of Bulgaria from 1878 to 1944 and the period of Communist rule from 1944 to 1989. Throughout, an attempt is made to identify and understand the themes and motivations behind various policies, arguing that while successive regimes frequently implemented similar policies, the underlying intentions were often significantly different. This article also attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of government policies, and to identify and explain the brief periods where oppression was relaxed and Roma culture and identity was actively promoted.

This article is an attempt to deconstruct the split of a Muslim Roma group and to explain why the “daughter’s” groups obtain absolutely different reputation, social status and cultural characteristics. The main focus of the explanation is social exclusion both on the side of macro-society and on the side of the other Roma groups in the region. The analysis is based on empirical data from Roma subgroups in the town of Sliven, Bulgaria. Although it looks like the paper is focused on a particular and isolated case, some of the mechanisms of “gemmation” of the ethnic group studied here probably have a more universal meaning.

The article explores the challenges and possible approaches to quantification of Roma communities – both for the purpose of sampling surveys and for the needs of operational policy-making. The starting point of the analysis is an overview of the history of Roma presence in Europe, which provides the argument for the idea of the multiple and fluid nature of Roma identity. Against this background the specific challenges related to developing a ‘single and precise’ definition of “the Roma” are analysed. Those challenges are stemming from the patterns of coexistence with the (equally vague and fluid) Gadze universe and the patterns of socialisation during modernity. Many of those elements still remain valid today. “Roma” is not just a meta-group, but a complex construct and its meaning differs depending on the interpretative frameworks of the different sides involved in the debate on the issue. Roma identity is also quite situational and reflective defined vis-à-vis the non-Roma (the Gadzo). Seen in historical perspective, this pattern of identification is not just the result of centuries of discrimination and prejudice against the Roma. The discrimination and prejudice themselves were an inevitable outcome to the process of modernisation, in which the way of living of Roma was increasingly in conflict with the emerging disciplining structures of sedentary societies and with the existing non-Roma hierarchies, both cleric and secular. The process intensified with the consolidation of nation-states in the 19th and 20th century. In the context of today’s post-modern society, the non-Roma populations are facing challenges similar to those faced for centuries by Roma. This is the challenge of how the existing (in most cases – modern) institutional frameworks can reflect and absorb the multiple identities of the post-modern citizens. Seen from this perspective, Roma inclusion could provide valuable insights. As for the issue of quantification, rigid definition or exact “counting” of Roma is not necessary for achieving real progress in Roma inclusion. Methods reflecting the fluid nature of the term “Roma” and corresponding to the policy priorities leading the process of data collection should be used instead. The author provides a specific example of such methods from the area of quantitative sampling surveys.

The paper presents a theoretical-empirical study on a problem concerning the role of the press to support and reproduce racism in social structures. Special attention is paid to the latent participation of the liberal newspapers in the systemic stigmatisation of the Roma. The factors favouring stigmatisation and social exclusion of the ethnically different and especially the Roma have been explored. Content and discursive analyses results regarding publications on the Roma in several national dailies (Ataka, Dnevnik, Dnes.bg, Klassa, Monitor, Novinar) for the period August 2010 – February 2011 are presented. The analysis is based on the primary topics of the publications reflecting negative stereotypes, prejudices and social distances towards the Roma: the Roma as a “threat to the nation”, as “social parasites”, as a “demographic threat”, as “criminal offenders”.

In this article, I have explored the effect of two macroeconomic processes on the volume of Roma content in six Bulgarian daily newspapers. Using Eurostat macroeconomic data and press monitoring results produced by an independent nonprofit, I test for the presence of a significant association between the volume of content of Roma related articles and the movement of prices – in particular, the food and non-alcoholic product prices, and the diesel and unleaded 95 fuel prices. Further, the association between the unemployment rate and the volume of content of Roma related articles is tested. Interesting results show that the overall movement of prices is not significantly correlated with the volume of Roma content in the dailies. On the other hand, the unemployment rate and the price of diesel and food products appear to be in a strong and significant association with the volume of Roma content. A similar type of association though cannot be proved when it comes to a nationalistic daily.

The present article focuses on the stereotypes used by 20 print media when publishing on Roma people in Bulgaria. The study answers several research questions: To what extent hate speech matters in relation to the Roma can be found in the Bulgarian press and what type of hate speech cases is replaced with implicitly negative matters? What are the main topics concerning the presence of the Roma in the national press and how are these topics distributed in the different printed media? What is the impact of the topical issues and events from the public agenda on the matters concerning the Roma minority? What are the general trends when it comes to representing the Roma during an election campaign? The research uses a triangulation between the two types of content analysis methods: a standardised matrix for quantitative analysis and open-coding of the key words and traits. An extremely negative stereotyped image is observed focused mainly on their lifestyle compared to their personal traits. The stereotypes are interrelated within a meta-story that more or less sounds like that: The drunken swarthy offenders live in illegal ghetto houses and do not pay their utility bills. They live in large family clans that fight each other depending on the interests of the big bosses.

Elucidating the Roma music and musicians in this paper is exposed on the more general picture of the historical destiny and the current-day situation of the Roma communities in South-eastern Europe. Analyses on the Roma musicians and their music have several aspects. The Roma musical culture on the Balkans is being traced in several directions. One of them leads to the question about the musicianship as a traditional Roma occupation that has developed throughout history in changing social-economic conditions and cultural traditions. Another aspect of reflection is associated with the boundaries and content of the term ”Gypsy/Roma music”. It is emphasised that there is no uniform musical language, style and identity shared by all Roma people throughout the world, but there exist musical similarities which are explained through lineal relationships. Special attention is paid to role of the professional Roma musicians within the Balkan musical traditions. Marking off the significant contribution of the Roma musicians for the development of the local musical cultures on the Balkans, it is emphasised that they have ambivalent role in these processes because, on one hand, they are keepers of the tradition and on the other – instruments of the change. Typical for the musical practice of the Balkan Roma instruments and ensembles are outlined. Several aspects concerning the attitudes towards the Roma via images of the Roma music on the Balkans that stimulate a great deal of associations are examined.

The study delineates the dynamic picture of the Roma music on the Balkans. The research interest is both anthropological and culturological, focused on the musical contexts – the functioning of music in the media and the music industry during the 20th and the 21st centuries. The first part of the study is dedicated to the recorded music on the Balkans during the current-day times: gramophone records from the first half of the 20th century, recorded Roma music from the Balkans at the beginning of the third millennium. Names, titles and phenomena from present times – still waiting to become an object of scientific analytical interpretation, are included in the final section: Roma contributions in the local ethno-pop music on the Balkans, kings and queens of the new Roma music, revival of local Roma practices in the instrumental music. The second part of the study traces the routes of the Balkan Roma music on the globalisation road in the space of the new media: the Internet, as voices and images in the we-media (social networks, video content sharing websites). Some characteristic media images of the Roma music from the third millennium are analysed in the third part: the Balkan Roma contributions to the modern ethno-jazz, the Balkan Beat phenomenon as a local Roma contribution to the world music and the ethno-fusion, the idiom Gypsy-punk. In conclusion, the common for the Balkans concerning the Roma music is generalised into two fields: as a Balkan musical idiom (music styles, instruments and ensembles, musical images) and as musician practices via the figure of the Roma musician on the Balkans. The Roma musicians and their music are mediators and innovators of the musical culture on the Balkans, in Europe and around the world. Their importance grows in the post-modern situation and in global aspect: the Balkan musical contributions of the Roma today acquire global cultural significance.

The paper attempts to provide the best possible idea about the presence of the original Roma poetry and prose in Bulgarian literature. Emblematic names of Roma artists are introduced – from those who first started to actively write to current-day authors (from Usin Kerim to Hristo Hristov); several authors who can be referred to as unfamiliar and waiting for success are also covered because of their correspondence to the thematic fields of the study. The Roma writers’ agitations concerning the particular issues they are interested in and reflected in their works are traced in the study: their affection to family and relatives, their sense of being ethnically different and the dramas representing the way they are treated by the others, their search for roots of ancient origin and language and their love experiences. The interests of the Roma artists regarding topical issues of their lives in Bulgaria are studied from the perspective that they are an inextricable part of the Bulgarian national literature and authors who share European values.