A Sociological Study of Identity Formation among the Rusyn Ethnic Minority: A Case Study in Slovakia

The aim of this article is to reveal the principle of symbiosis through focusing on identity formation among minority Rusyn people who live in the eastern part of Slovakia. In this area, in which over many years a society was formed in which many ethnic groups coexist, people have cultivated a self-identity rich in plasticity in response to various social changes. The present writer investigated the culture and society of the Rusyn empirically and summarized results of this research in the context of a global ethnicity problem. According to this research, the complicated identity formation process of the Rusyn people is analyzed as a helix model. There are two groups among the Rusyn people, the pro-Rusyn who tend to be strongly Rusyn oriented, and "daily cultural Rusyn". The latter forms the basis of the helix model of identity formation. Furthermore, based on these verifications, it is concluded that the identity of Rusyn is an identity as a credo. 這篇論文的目的在於探索東斯洛伐克羅賽尼亞(Rusyn)少數族群，認同形塑的共棲原則(the principle of symbiosis)。在這個區域中，長久以來就是一個多群族共存的社會。其住民已經發展出來一種自我身份認同，可以充分彈性地回應多變的社會變遷。研究者透過經驗性地調查羅賽尼亞的社會與文化，並將其置放在一個全球化族群問題的脈絡中來總結本研究。本研究指出，羅賽尼亞人複雜的認同形塑過程可以一個螺旋式的模型來分析。羅賽尼亞人是由兩個團體所組成，一是原型羅賽尼亞人(pro-Rusyn)，他們是強烈羅賽尼亞導向的(Rusyn oriented)，另一則是「日常羅賽尼亞文化人」(daily cultural Rusyn)。後者構成螺旋模型的基礎。基於這些證據，本文認為羅賽尼亞的認同如同宗教信仰(credo) 。