Why the Vojvodovo Czechs were considered to be Germans? On culture, faith and religion in Vojvodovo and Bardarski Geran
Abstract
The text represents a contribution to the study of Vojvodovo, the Czech village in Bulgaria. The author attempts to answer the question in his analysis why so many Vojvodovo Czech Protestants chose as their marriage partners inhabitants of a nearby village of Bardarski Geran, both Banat Bulgarians (Paulicians) and Banat Swabians.
In both villages religion was perhaps the most important organizational principle, religious endogamy being one of its main rules. One would expect absence of intermarriage between Vojvodovo and Bardarski geran for this reason, the opposite, however, was true.
The author shows that the reason, why members of both communities felt a kind of mutual affinity, was culture, as both groups shared many cultural traits. One of these cultural traits was deep and genuine religiosity, or better to say belief.
So, though at the first sight it is religiosity (seen as the creed) that seems to prevent any closer contacts between the two communities, it is religiosity (seen as belief) that stands behind the surprising and unexpected number of marriages that took place between the members of the two local communities.