Itt-Ott, 1994 (27. évfolyam, 1. (123.) szám)
1994 / 1. (123.) szám
i Recycling Ethnicity in Post- Communist Romania Doina and Nicolae Harsanyi (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) This paper is based on Anthony F. W. Wallace’s revitalization theory and on its application and on its application to the current situation in Eastern Europe, as presented by Douglas Durasoff.1 Wallace defines a revitalization moavement as a “deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of society to construct a more satisfying culture.” Successful revitalization movements ultimately achieve a new steady state through the performance of six key functions: “mazeway reformulation,” communication, organization, adaptation, and cultural transformation. From this perspective, in December 1989 Romania experienced not one, but two revitalization moments, both of which, alas, remained unfinished and ended up producing a lot of confusion instead of the clarification they were supposed to bring about. The case of Romania fits quite well Durasoffs description of multicultural societies: “Multicultural societies where several subgroups have strong separate identities, are less likely to experience unifying revitalization movements which operate across the entire society. Separate identities will generally resist impingements from one hegemonic culture or will be unaffected by a revitalization attempt which does not speak to their cultural code.”2 Romania’s bumpy progression along the road begun in December 1989 contains at least the incipient phases of a potential revital-1- Douglas Durasoff, “Revitalization Processes in Post-Communist Eastern Europe: Religion as Active Participant in Political Transformation” in Ramet, Sabrina (ed.), Adaptation and Transformation in Communist and Post-Communist Systems (Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press, 1992), 185-207. 2- Ibid., 190. Presented at Midwest Slavic Conference, East Lansing, Michigan, May 1, 1993. ization movement. In 1989 the conditions in the country certainly met the functional criteria of the prerequisites leading to such a movement: both the social system and the individuals were stressed to the point of distorting basic identity assumptions. The unavoidable breakdown came with a revitalization moment — in Douglas Durasoffs definition a “politically pregnant event which reveals aspects of mazeway reformulation and cultural transformation, but is relatively short in duration and does not achieve the reorganization and routinization functions of a successful movement.”3 By now the events that took place in Timisoara, December 15-20, 1989 are quite well known. In light of the above theory, what is particularly relevant is the impact that pastor László Tőkés had on a community far larger than his own parish. Pastor Tőkes’s career had begun quite modestly, by advocationg resistance to the pressures the Hungarian community had to face from the Romanian communist leadership. Tőkés’s pleas, formulated in a language that avoided the nationalist tone, revolving around issues of general human dignity and the right to one’s own ethnic indentity, as well as his almost sacrificial behavior in the face of relentless and brutal harassment at the hands of the authorities provided a catalyst for action, and effectively awoke the repressed aspirations of many people beyond their ethnic group. The week that began with the vigil in front of Tőkés’s church in Timisoara may be likened to a revitalization movement: the “mazeway revolution” — a new way of perceiving and responding to reality — materialized in the way thousands of individuals crossed the threshold from subservience to assertiveness, openly repudiating the entire social and cultural order, and claiming new values to live by. Remarkably enough, no nationalistic overtones were attached to this move towards a new identity. A symmetrical counterweight system of values got articulated: freedom instead of coercion, freedom of speech instead of censorship, religion as a daily routine instead of mandated atheism, openness in-3- ibid., 193. ITT-OTT 27. évf. (1994), 1. (123.) szám 43 T T Kisebbségben
