01 decembrie 2009

Gypsies in Romania and Europe

"The Roma are an ethnic group which make up 2.4% of Romania's population."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_in_Romania_by_Romani_population)

(http://referate.educativ.ro/referate/Engleza/www.educativ.ro-Gypsies-in-Europe.doc)
For original document click the title or copy the link above
The Gypsy peoples originate from Sind region now in Pakistan. Their Rom language is close to the older forms of Indian languages. The three tribes of Rom, Sinti, and Kale probably left India after a succession of campaigns in Sind through the C11, initially spending time in Armenia and Persia, then moving into the Byzantine Empire after the Seljuk Turk attacks on Armenia. Within the Byzantine Empire they dispersed into the Balkans reaching Wallachia (1385) (now Romania) ahead of this area falling to the Ottoman Turks. Other groups also moved through India to Gujarat and south of Delhi. Gypsy populations can still be found along all these migration routes.
When entering west Europe they initially had letters of protection from the King of Hungary. This privileged situation did not last long as amazement at their way of life commonly led to hostilities. The Gypsy way of life still leads to hostilities from the people of their host nations. Europeans regard "private property" as sacrosanct, whereas gypsies do not have a word for "possess", which gives rise to two incompatible ways of life and a continual problem of gypsies being regarded as "thieves" from the European's view.
In each host nation gypsies appear to take on the religion, names and language of their hosts, but within the Rom they maintain their Rom language, names, music, customs and Indian looks. This tight community has meant that after some six hundred years there is still a large population of gypsies not integrated or assimilated with Romanians.
From the time of their arrival in Romania Gypsies were the slaves of the landowners, only to be emancipated in 1851. While in Romania some of the Gypsies took to speaking a version of Romanian called Bayesh which can be heard in some of the songs of Gypsy groups recorded in Hungary. Nowadays about 40% of the Gypsies still speak Romany and many can still be seen travelling in lines of carts along the roads of Romania. The majority live in the towns and villages, some fully integrated into villages, some in large ornate houses standing out from the Romanians, but others in small buildings on scraps of lands on the villages edges.
The Rom tribes from Romania distinguish themselves by the names of their trades:
Lăutari = musicians and dancers
Căldărari (Kalderash) = Tin and coppersmiths
Argintari = Jewellers
Fierari = Blacksmiths
Zlateri = gold panners
Ghurara = sieve makers
Lovar = horse dealers
The Roma/Gypsies form a group of approximately 8-10 million people in Europe. They are to be found in almost all Council of Europe member states and indeed, in some central and east European countries, they represent over 5% of the population.
...
When thinking of the Gypsies of Europe, one may envision a dark-skinned group of people, traveling in a band of wagons and playing music - seemingly unaffected by their surroundings. If one has traveled in Eastern Europe he may think of the barefoot children walking the streets and singing in the Metro stations for money. One may also remember the typical warning by others to "Beware of the Gypsies, they will try to steal from you!"
In fact, the Rroma (Gypsies) are a diverse group of people, differing in occupation, standard-of-living, historical experience of their home country, education and levels of "integration." Contrary to the typical stereotype, it has been estimated that only 5% of the entire Rroma population in Europe (estimated between 7 - 8.5 million) lead an itinerant mode of life. Though there are subtleties of different dialects, the Rroma share a common language based on old Sanskrit.
In the Rromani language, self-identification involves the word "Rrom." When encountering other Rroma, "Are you Rrom?" is asked, not "Are you Gypsy?" The designation as "Gypsy" is related to the old belief that the Rroma came from Egypt, though studies of the Rromani language in the late 18th century revealed their Indian origin.
In non-English speaking countries, the Rroma are usually referred to as Zigeuner, Zingari, Tsiganes and other variants stemming from the Greek word "Atsinganoi," which was actually a religious sect in the Byzantine Empire, unrelated to the Rroma yet attributed to this "foreign" population.
...
The Rroma associations in Romania and other experts maintain that the word "Tigani" has a pejorative connotation. The link is made with the centuries of slavery, where the association of the ethnic designation "Tigani"- a socially inferior status, has remained in the social-cultural memory, later justified through racial and racist argumentation in the mid-twentieth century. It has been estimated that 5 - 600,000 of the European Rroma died in the Holocaust - a percentage of their total population comparable with the statistics of the Jewish population. (Ian Hancock, "Land of Pain", World Romani Union, pg. 72, 1986).
...
The world population of Roma is difficult to establish with any certainty. Estimates suggest that there are between approximately 5 and 10 million Roma worldwide. Around 6 to 8 million Roma live in Europe. The largest concentrations of Roma are found in the Balkan peninsula of south-eastern Europe, in central Europe, the United States, and in Russia and the other successor republics of the USSR. Smaller numbers are scattered throughout Western Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
The country with the largest populations of Roma is Romania with around 500,000-700,000 (the similarity of names, however, is coincidental). Other countries where Roma populations probably exceed half a million are Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, the former Yugoslavia, and the United States.
...
The distrust of Roma reached a peak in World War II when the Nazis murdered large numbers of Roma. They were one of the major groups (along with Jews, communists, homosexuals, prostitutes, etc.) to be automatically sentenced to imprisonment in a concentration camp or killed on sight. It is believed that 400,000 Roma were killed.
...

Bibliography:

- „Gypsies between ignorance and alarm” , coordonatori C. Zamfir, E. Zamfir, Ed. Alternative, Bucharest, 1993
- Ian Hancock, Land of Pain, „World Romani Union”, pg.72, 1986
- Coord. Adrian Neculau si Gilles Ferreol, "Minoritari, marginali, exclusi" ed. Polirom, 1996, Iasi
- "The National Plan for Poverty Alleviation and Promotion of Social Inclusion", is published (GD no. 829/2002 of 31.07.2002
- Revista de Asistenta Sociala, nr. 2/2002, 6/2002

http.www.thata.ch
http://www.hansrossel.com/fotos/fotografie/roemenie/index.htm
http://www.eliznik.org.uk/index.html
http://www.pixton.org/TomsRomaniaGypsyPage.html
http://www.amber-online.com/html/document262.html
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/antigypsy.htm
http://www.errc.org/
http://www.ce-review.org/99/2/lovatt2.html

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