197 Todorović D. (University of Ni) CHALLENGES OF QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGY IN THE STUDY OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF ROMA (On the Example of the Protestantization of Roma in Southeastern Serbia) * Abstract: Previous research into the religious life of Roma in Serbia has mostly been based on questionnaires and surveys of sociologists of religion on their religious (current connection to religion and church) and confessional (belonging to a religion) self-identification, on the ritual cele- bration of two religious-ethnic holidays: Vlasuljica (January 14, St. Basil) and Đurđevdan (May 6, St. George), on the relationship between the religious majority and the Romani religious minority and religious discrimination against Roma, as well as on the influence of ethnic-religious factors on the social distance towards the Romani people. Researchers have not, however, engaged in more complex understanding of the Romani religious culture and nuanced systematization of the manner in which believers interpret their own religious experience in the context of their natural surround- ings. Particularly in the case of more recent phenomena in the Serbian religious market, such as the conversion of Roma to small religious communities and the way in which this process has been un- folding: missionary activity (evangelization), conversion, that is, proselytism (drawing believers). The paper describes a substantial research effort to detect Roma as a religious-confessional reservoir of Protestantization and the ways in which qualitative methodology is used to study the factors of the Romani association with Adventists, Baptists, Pentecostals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses, the most numerous and agile representatives of the “third” branch of Christianity in southeastern Serbia. Keywords: Roma, religious life of Roma, Protestantization of Roma, southeastern Serbia, qualitative methodology. INTRODUCTION: THE NIŠ SCHOOL OF ROMOLOGY AND THE STUDY OF RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS OF ROMA It seems as though there is nothing left to learn about Roma, yet there still remains a lot to be discovered. Even though Roma are an ethnic minority in Serbia who share the same historical destiny with the majority population, the study of their economic position, specific culture, and diversity of religion and customs has not been met with understanding from our scientific and professional public. Rare is the experiential research where the focus is on an actual local, urban, or rural community, often the most representative for the areas where the Romani people live. Serbs have shown a particularly troubling lack of knowledge of the Romani religious- confessional being: what does its palette look like, how is it formed, which are the major constituting factors, do Roma give more or take more cultural markers in the process? The study of religion, religiosity, and religious customs of Roma is important for at least two reasons: 1. the Romani religious culture is a significant segment of the unique Romani cul- ture and 2. the emancipation in the religious-church field, apart from the socio-economic and political ones, is a crucial precondition for the overall emancipation of the Romani peo- ple. Despite this, the domestic sociology of religion has not shown much interest in the reli- gious and faith life of Roma (Todorović 2008a; ЂL 2012). As far as the efforts to in- * Prepared as a part of the project Sustainability of the Identity of Serbs and National Minorities in the Border Munici- palities of East and Southeast Serbia (179013), carried out at the University of Niš – Faculty of Mechanical Engineer- ing, and supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.