This article argues that the category of indigenous Romanian, which was articulated at the end of the 18th century can be better understood as a product of imperial racialization. Building on Katherine Verdery’s work, I analyze the production of the Romanian indigeneity within the context of imperial rivalries in the Habsburg empire. In doing so, I critically investigate the impact of Benedict Anderson’s theory of nationalism in Romanian studies, given that it introduced a sharp distinction between ethnicity and race. My argument opens up two new conceptual routes. On the one hand, it suggests a line of investigation comparing the formation of Romanian ethnicity with debates about white racial identity in North America. On the other hand, it makes visible the exclusion of Roma ethnicity from narratives about the origin of Romanianness. I conclude by drawing on larger consequences regarding, not only the question of race and stereotypes, but also by looking at the global process of forming the distinction between the indigenous and the foreign migrant.

本文认为，可以更好地理解18世纪末明确表达的土著罗马尼亚人的类别是帝国种族化的产物。在凯瑟琳·韦德里（Katherine Verdery）的作品的基础上，我分析了哈布斯堡帝国在帝国对抗的背景下罗马尼亚本土化的产生。在这样做的过程中，我认真地研究了本尼迪克特·安德森的民族主义理论在罗马尼亚研究中的影响，因为它引入了种族与种族之间的鲜明区别。我的论点开辟了两条新的概念路线。一方面，它提出了一条调查路线，将罗马尼亚种族的形成与关于北美白人种族身份的辩论进行了比较。另一方面，它使罗姆人种族被排除在有关罗马尼亚起源的叙述之外。