Representations of Coexistence in Transylvania

Abstract

Our survey has explored four structural strata in the relationship o f the Hungarian and Romanian population, living together in Transylvania. The first stratum is similarity. Visibly both national groups have experienced post-socialist transformation to the same extent and in the same way, upon which they have similarly reacted. In the second place the differences were explored, which are rooted in the different historical tradition and different religious stratification o f the two national groups; further on, in the different relationship to the meanings created by the Hungarian and Romanian culture respectively. The reserves of ethnocentrism have proved to be alive in both the national groups, and additional corresponding tendencies were found in data related to social distance. The fourth layer of coexistence was conflict, examples of which were found in abundance in the field of symbolic, as well as real social life.