Rroms

The Rroms (or Rroma , Romanian , Roma ), are called in French Gipsies , Tziganes or Gypsies, Zigueunes , Manouches , Gipsies , Bohémiens , Sinti , Travelling entertainers or Nomades Open , these three last denominations being employed knowingly by the authorities to maintain certain confusions, and its denominations are taken again innocently by the public-->. Rroms is a name adopted by the World council rrôme and the United Nations, but of the groups, like the Gipsies and the Yéniches do not recognize themselves like rroms. Concerning the gipsies/Kalés, it should however be noted that so some of them are recognized completely in the flag rrom and within the international Union rromani, they refuse to be comparable in Rroms, because for them this name indicates only the Tziganes , Gipsies and Bohémiens of Eastern Europe. non-Rroms being legion, the sedentarisation and acculturation (or integration, according to the points of view) progressing at high speed, it is in any event random to want to define with precision of the criteria of membership and the exact number of the Rroms . --> Their number is estimated between 12 and 15 million on the continent of Europe, between 7 and 9 million in the European Union.

“Rrom” also appoints a manouche household head.

Speech community

The linguists think that these groups are originating in India of north and current the Pakistan: their languages are originating in this area, the Sinti comes from the Sind and the rromani is connected with the Punjabi , and more particularly with the dialect of the Pothohar, primarily spoken with the Pakistan and to a lesser extent in the North-West about India. In India Brahmanique, the loggers, the butchers, the knackers, the tanners, the grave-diggers, the street sweepers, the ragmen, the ironworkers, the mercenaries ( Rajputs ) and the travelling acrobats trades necessary, but considered as impure exerted: they did not have the right to be sedentary and were outcast ( çandales ). Already in India, where they were social class rather than ethnicity, and where they are known under the names of Doms , Lôms or Hanabadoches (in Hindi and Urdu) their origins were geographically and socially very permeable multiples, and their groups (a child resulting from an unauthorized union, an outlaw for some reason that it is, were as “impure” as them and could thus join them).

From India, some of these groups migrated to escape the rejection from the brahmanic company towards the Iranian Plateau and the Central Asia, where they are called Kaoulis and Djâts . In Central Asia, some are reflected, as charriers, stockbreeders of horses, being useful and scouts, with the service of the Mongolian , which protected them and left them, in exchange, a share of the spoils. With the Horde of Gold and Tamerlan, Rrôms parvînrent thus in Europe, Anatolia and with the doors of the Egypt. Tsiganoi among the Byzantine (from where Gypsies), Cingene among the Turks, Romani-concealment for themselves (i.e. “people rrom”, from where Gipsies for the Cross French-speaking), Manuschen for the German-speaking Crusaders and Gypsies for the English Crusaders, the majority of Rroms, once arrived to Europe, are reflected under the protection of the noble lords and the monasteries or abbeys, thus escaping vindication from the sedentary farmers, and continuing to exert their traditional trades with the service of their new Masters (it is what one calls them slavery : it is acted in fact of a constraint of the feudal type). At the 14th century, the majority of the groups of Rrôms which we know had completed their installation in Europe.

The majority of Rrôms current speaks the Rromani, a language resulting from the Sanskrit with influences Avestique S and Hebraic. But in general Rroms speak also the language dominant about the area in which they live, even several languages. For example, Rroms of Prizren to the Kosovo daily speak four languages, as of their more young age: the Albanian, the rromani, the Serbo-Croatian and the Turkish . As Slovakia, much about Rroms speak at the same time the rromani, the Slovak one and Hungarian. Many mixed unions make that Rrôms also approach the phenotype (standard physics) of the surrounding populations, and even if some always resemble Indians of Pendjab, one should not be astonished to meet of Rrôms fair.

Legends of the origins

One knows the history of Rroms better and better, even if it is strongly related on the legends and the imagination, which belongs to their traditions. The origin of Rroms was the object of all the phantasms. The assumptions which made of them the descendants of Caïn côtoient those which affiliate them with Cham. Others reduce them magi from Chaldée, Telamones, of Syria, one of the lost tribes of Israel, Égyptiens of the Pharaonic time, or of old tribes Celtes of the time of the Druide S. the fascination exerted by such myths encouraged these nomads, often living of their talents, to give themselves the most mysterious origins. Rroms thus descend (with the choice, or any unit) from the Hindu divinity Rāma (in Devanāgarī), or from Rāmachandra (more respectfully, Śrī Rāma in Devanāgarī), misadventure of Vishnou, Tubalkaïn the first blacksmith, the children of the biblical Marie-madeleine, the Manicheans of Phrygie, of the Mayas, Aztec, Incas, Tamerlan, Large the Moghol, the Mameluk S.

Name

Rroms are often known in French like:

  • Gipsies , Spanish derivation ( Gitanos ) of the word Egi tanos . This Ethnonyme used forever by Rroms to indicate themselves. In France, the term Gipsy a long time was associated with the persecution whose they were the object, and acquired a pejorative connotation. They were thus called “Egyptians” in France (for example, Zerbinette , “believed Egyptian, and recognized girl of Argante, and amante of Léandre” in Cheatings of Scapin ).

  • Manouche S , near to manushiam which in Hindi means people.

  • Romanian S , which in Hindi which means man .

  • Gipsies , derivation of Romani concealment in Romani (approximately, group of men ).

  • Gypsies in English points out an old legend according to which they from Egypt (cf Diaspora). The English chose Gypsies according to the Greek Γύφτοι ( Gyftoi , perhaps derived from Αιγύπτιοι /Aigyptoi).

  • Gypsies , of the Greek Αθίγγανος (“untouchable”). This denomination gave Zigeuner in German, Cigány in Hungarian, Zingaro in Italian, etc French knows two C-Ws communication of the word: Tzigane . The Tziganes prefer the S with Z , on the one hand, because this last evokes too painfully Z (for Zigeuner ) tattooed by the S in the concentration camps, then, because it does not correspond to the pronunciation of the mot. Pourtant, the use of Z is more current in French, and recommended by the French Academy.

  • One called, formerly, certain groups Tziganes Bohémiens , or Boumians . The king of Bohemia, indeed, had granted a Passeport to them which they showed in Europe.

The tsiganologists currently divide the rrom unit into three linguistic units groups, corresponding to three great units historically differentiated in Europe:

  • the Gipsies or Tziganes live mainly in Eastern Europe; they are also present in Western Europe (since the end of the 19th century), in the Middle East, in America and Australia;

  • Sintis or Manouches lives in France, in Italy, with the Benelux countries and in Germany;
  • the Gipsies live in the south of France, in Spain and in Portugal.

There is not relationship between the names of Rroms or the name of their language, the rromani, with the town of Rome ( Latin Roma in , Italian and Rumanian), the Roman Empire, the Romania, the Romains, the Rumanian or their languages. The majority of the linguists make go up the etymology of this term with Rrom S (" personne" , " homme") or with their names in India: Rabari S or Doms , names which would have extended to all the Indian migrants.

Rroms are known under different Ethnonyme S:

  • Albanian: Cigan, Maxhup, Gabel, Arixhi, Jevg
  • English: Arab Gypsies
  • : Ghajar or Armenian Nawar
  • : Bosnian Gnchou
  • and Croatian: Romi or Breton Cigani
  • : Bulgarian Jipsian
  • : Цигани (Tsigani)
  • Catalan: Gitano
  • Chinese: 罗姆人 luōmǔrén (recent transcription)
  • Korean: 로마인 Roman (recent transcription)
  • Danish: Spanish Sigøjner
  • : Gitano, Fixed
  • Finnish: Mustalaiset (singular: mustalainen) or Flemish Romani
  • and German: Zigeuner
  • French: Gipsies, Tziganes, Gypsies, Manouches, Gipsies, Gipsies, Sintis, Travelling entertainers, Romano, Gitous, Babanes, Open.
  • Welsh they is known like " Sipsiwn" who comes from English " Gypsy"
  • Greek: Τσιγγάνοι (Tsiggáni), Γύφτοι (Yífti, pejorative)
  • Hebrew: צוענים ( Tso-a-nim ) (pl.) or צועני ( Tso-have-nor ) (sing.)
  • Hungarian: Cigány , Gábary .
  • Italian: Zingari
  • Japanese: ロマ roma (recent transcription)
  • Kabyle: Kurdish Ijwaṭiyen
  • : Asix (Asidjis, which points out Atsiganoi)
  • Latvian: Lithuanian Čigāni
  • : Čigonai
  • Macedonian: Роми (Romi) or Цигани (Tsigani)
  • Norwegian: Persan Sigøyner
  • , farsi: کولی (Kowli)
  • Polish: Cyganie
  • Portuguese: Rumanian Cigano
  • : Rromi (official) or Ţigani (sometimes pejorative)
  • Russian: Цыгане (Tsyganye)
  • Serb: Роми (Romi) or Цигани (Tsigani)
  • Slovak: Cigáni
  • Swedish: Czech Zigenare
  • : Turkish Cikáni
  • : Çingene , 'Ukrainian Çiganlar
  • : Цигани (Tsygany) or Роми (Romy)
  • Yiddish: ציגײַנער (Tsigayner, or Tsiganer)
--- The authors of this article agree to write Rrom with two " r" rather than one, for the name of the people and that of the language, the two phonemes being distinct in certain speeches (R) romani. Some Rroms say that it is an inaccurate pronunciation, ever adopted by Rroms, and rejected by the last Rrom congress, which defined the alphabet rromani for the rromani. Others line up with the double writing of the " r" as being at least neutral: asserted by the militants of the movement of recognition of the " populate rrom" in the countries of Eastern Europe, and particularly in Romania, this orthography avoids confusion between " Rromani" (the language of Rroms) and " Români" (Roumanians, in Rumanian).

Much Rroms is indicated by a generic name, rrom (which means " homme" , in opposition to gajo , pl. gajé : foreigner).

Language

The analysis of the language Rromani showed that it is related with the spoken languages with the Pakistan and in the North-West of the India, as with the Sind, the Pothohar and the Panjâb. More recent studies locate the cradle of the rromani in the average valley of Gange in north east of India. The linguistic loans of the rromani make possible the follow-up of their migration towards the West. Some Rroms developed Sabir S such as:

  • Ibéro-rromani ( Caló ), which uses the vocabulary rromano and Spanish grammar. It is the source of many words in Spanish Argot.
  • Lomavren or Lovari , or arméno-rromani
  • Anglorromani or anglo-rromani or " cant"
  • Ellino-rromani or gréco-rromani
  • NOMAD Norsk or norvégo-rromani
  • Srpskorromani or serbo-rromani
  • Boyash , a Rumanian dialect with loans with Hungarian and the rromani
  • Tavringer rromani or suédo-rromani

History

Origins

The linguistic studies establish, as of the end of the 18th century, the Indian origins of Rroms, assumption recut by a historico-legendary account dating from the middle of the 10th century, the Chronique Persian of Hamza d' Ispahan , which was reproduced and clearing at the 11th century by the poet Ferdowsi.

According to this chronicle, several thousands of Zott , Djâts , Romanian or Dom (men) left the current Sind, and perhaps the river Sindhu about year 900 according to the orders of the king. They were to join the king of Perse, anxious to divert its subjects thanks to their musical culture. From there, they divided and scattered around the world. Installed a long time in Persia, these Roms, already described like refusing to live of agriculture, end up separating in two migratory groups: ones towards south-west and Egypt, others towards the North-West and Europe.

Rroms could thus have left the India around 1000 a. J. - C., and to have crossed what is now the Afghanistan, the Iran, the Arménie, most of the the Caucasus and the Turkey. Rroms populations recognized by other Rroms as such still live in Iran, including those which migrated towards Europe, and which set out again there. At the 14th century, Rroms vassal of the Tatars reach the Balkans, and at the 16th century, the Scotland and the Sweden. Some Rroms migrate towards the south. In 1425 they cross the Pyrenees and penetrate in Spain. Certain authors think that Roms never forwarded by North Africa, as of others think it. Always it is that indisputable evidence misses.

Certain authors connect Rroms with people living today in India, apparently originating in the desert State of the the Rajasthan. In fact no linguistic relationship until now was shown between the Banjara nomads or Lamani of India and Rroms.. At all events, contrary to the scientists and intellectuals, of origin rrom or not, the interested parties do not attach any importance to this " origin indienne" , when they do not deny it.

Since many generations Rroms are actually very massively sedentary, except for some minority groups Sintis living primarily in Western Europe. These are the latter which were useful, since the end of the 18th century, of “model impossible to circumvent” to the primarily English, German scholars and French who could not, at the time, to conceive another scenario that of the original nomadism and sought, in vain, among the nomads of India the cousins of Rroms d' Europe. of the Banjaras, remained in India.

Migration of India in Europe

See the article: Migration of Rroms of India in Europe

The migration of these many Indians towards Europe as from the year 1000 seems to be related to displacements towards the west of the Mongolian of the Turks. In Persian and Anatolia, Rrôms appears at the same time as the Ghaznévides from 998 to 1030 and than the Seldjoukides in 1071. In Russia and Eastern Europe, their arrival is related to that of the Tatars as from 1223. Rrôms were traditionally the vassal ones of these people: they raised their horses, cleared the forests, built the carriages, manufactured cauldrons and weapons, recognized the fords and the territories.

Diaspora

The reason of the diaspora of Rroms is one of the great mysteries of the history. It was proposed by certain that Rroms were in the beginning a low caste of Indus recruited like an army of mercenaries, to which it was guaranteed the state of warlike caste, which was sent towards the west to resist the Moslem military expansion. Another theory would be that they were prisoners taken as slaves by the Moslem conquerors of the north of India, and that they became a community distinct in their countries from captivity. It is reported that Mahmud de Ghazni made a half-million prisoners during the invasion turco-Persian of Sindh and Punjab in India. Why, then, Rromane they did not return to India, instead of continuing as far as Europe? This remains a enigma, but of aucuns estimate that their maintenance on the spot could be related to the military service under the Moslems.

More probably, the rejection of which they were the object as craftsmen of trades considered in the hindouism as impure did not give them any reason to prefer India with the Muslim world or Christian. The rrôms left probably India, quite simply in search of opportunities, and sought on their road of the guards (initially Turkish-speaking migrating, then abbeys, medersas and lords).

The Greece accommodates of it a great number at the beginning of the 14th century, under the name of Atsinganos ( Ατσίγγανος , which gave Tzigane, Zigeuner, Zingari, Ciganos, etc), in particular in “Small Egypt”, the most fertile area of the Peloponnese, crossed by the Western pilgrims going in Holy Land. These travellers call then them Égyptiens (Egitanos, Gitanos, Gipsies, Egypsies, Gypsies). But the ceaseless wars between Byzantine and Othoman push them on the roads of Europe, and at the 15th century, the diaspora starts to be visible everywhere.

In 1427, the hundred Tziganes which arrives at the doors of Paris creates sensation, and their talents of entertainers make quickly them popular. The groups of “Travellers” are often presented in the form of pilgrims, give each other prestigious titles like count or duke of Egypt , eat with the table of large lords or are nourished by the communes in exchange of their various services (musicians, but also basket makers, let us maquignons, adjusters etc). They obtain letters of protection of monarchs, like the “Gipsies”, a group entered to France with a letter of protection of the king of Bohemia, and seek the protection of the Pape.

In 1865, in Romania, humanistic prince Alexandre Ioan Cuza secularizes the immense ecclesiastical fields and unties Rrôms of their bonds towards the monasteries and the lords. Officially, this act starts from an good intention: they acts to put an end to slavery. But in practice, that leaves Rromane without protection vis-a-vis the sedentary farmers who claim a land reform, and obliges them to take again the nomadism, whereas they had been sédentarisés in majority around the seigneuriaux fields (konaks) and abbey. It will have to be waited until 1923 so that laws give them rights equal to the sedentaries and protect them from discriminations.

Immigration rrome with the the United States starts with colonization, with small groups in Virginia and Louisiana. Immigration with more large scales begins in the Années 1860, with groups of Gipsies or comparable (with twists - ainsi : the Pavees ) of the the United Kingdom. The greatest number of immigrants arrives at the beginning of the Années 1900, mainly of the group Kalderash Valaque. The two groups hardly join. A great number also lands in Latin America.

The 20th century

At the 20th century, the large waves of migration ceased at the time of the First World War.

It is, paradoxically, first half of the 20th century, time of liberalization in all Europe, which was hardest for the " people of the voyage". In France, a law on “the exercise of the travelling professions and the circulation of the nomads” obliges them, in 1912, to provide itself with a “anthropometric notebook of identity” which must be plugged with each displacement.

In Germany, the Parti national-Socialist reinforces, as of his come to power, a legislation already rather hard; although Indo-Europeans, the Zigeuner are not regarded as Aryen S but, on the contrary, like a mixture of lower races or, at best, like the asocial ones. They quickly are parked in reserves (one plans to classify a tribe like sample of it, but the project is abandoned), then sent in Poland, and finally interned in concentration camps on order of Himmler, then eliminated in death camps.

During the Second world war, between 50.000 and 220.000 Gypsies of Europe died of the continuations of persecutions Nazis. The Tzigane term more running to indicate this Génocide is Porrajmos , which means “devoration literally”. The Gypsies also took part in the resistance armed in France, in Yugoslavia, in Romania, in Poland and the USSR.

France does not await the German occupation to intern its own wandering populations, “by national security measure”. The decrees of April 1940 oblige them to be fixed in a commune, and one speaks about concentration camps in all letters in the circulars intended for the prefects. The invasion, which throws thousands of people on the roads, scrambles the charts temporarily. But, as soon as the situation is standardized, the internments by the French authorities begin again. The German authorities are satisfied to confirm the decrees of April and are even less severe; according to Peschanski, 3  000 Tziganes were interned between 1940 and 1946. There will be only few deportations towards Germany. The last internees with the Camp of Jargeau will leave it only in December 1945, whereas the surviving deportees returned from Germany since spring.

Other massacres took a particularly cruel form during this time of chaos: thus, in Romania, the mode of Antonescu off-sets more than 5000 Rrôms towards the Ukraine occupied by the Roumanians (" Transnistrie "): the majority die of cold, hunger and Dysenterie. Some courageous inhabitants manage to protect certain groups. The Rumanian government officially recognized this genocide (at the same time as Shoah) in 2005.

Genocide has violently marked consciences and, if it is necessary to await 1969 so that a more liberal law replaces in France the law of 1912, that is done without opposition, those which are unfavorable to the Tziganes fearing to be comparable to the promoters of racism under the German Occupation. However, it is only into 1988 that France agrees to remember the policy led by the French State with regard to the nomads between 1939 and 1945, and draws up a stele commemorative on one of the sites of internment. Without that not awaking the conscience of the public, often being unaware of that the Juifs were not the only victims of the racist madness (" asociaux" , handicapped, Slavic etc) and completely indifferent to the famines organized by the Soviets in Ukraine (in particular in 1932, with 7,5 million dead), and also not very inclined to be moved by the ethnic cleanings contemporary. The recognition of all these victims is far from being acquired.

The last decades are marked by a massive conversion of the evangelic community to the Protestantisme . In France, 100.000 adults at least join the religious organization Vie and founded Lumière in 1953 and member of the Protestant federation of France.

The company rromani

Population

Estimates leave think that there are roughly 8 to 10 million Rroms in the world. Between 7 and 10 million lives in Europe. The greatest concentrations of Rroms are in the Balkans, in Central Europe and of the East, with the the United States, and in South America. Moreover small groups live in the west and the north of Europe, with the the Middle East, and in North Africa.

Country where the populations rrom exceed the half-million are Romania, Bulgaria (a point which agitated certain spirits before the integration of these countries in the European Community), countries of the ex- Yugoslavia, the Spain, the the United States, the Brésil and the Argentine. Rroms are numerous also in Poland, in Czech Republic, Germany, Turkey and Slovakia.

Rromane recognize divisions between them with concepts of territoriality, differences in traditions and dialects. Each one of these principal divisions was divided into sub-groups, differentiated by their occupation, their trade or their territorial origin, or all these criteria at the same time. Among these groups, one finds Machvaya (Machwaya), Lovaris, the Sinti S, Boyash, Ludars, the Luri S, Xoraxai or Korakai, Bashaldés, and Romungro. These communities or groups do not have ethnic significance inevitably (most of the time they are simple nicknames related to activities):

  1. Kokkalares (of the Greek Kokkala = bones), formerly grave-diggers and diggers of the Balkans and Eastern Europe;
  2. Kalderash (of Rumanian Cäldare = cauldron), formerly blacksmiths of the Balkans and Central Europe, today also present at the the United States, and which are most numerous);
  3. Roudars (in Rumanian Rudari ), often exerting trades of wood in Central Europe, today also present at the Brazil;
  4. Rotars (of Rumanian Rotari = wheels), jedis charriers of the Balkans and Central Europe, now present at the the United States, exerting the trades of the road and mechanics);
  5. Oursars (of Rumanian Ursari = bear leaders), initially travelling acrobats and conjurers of the Balkans, of Turkey, Central Europe and Eastern Europe, later on become ragmen, scrap merchants, sometimes robbers (but this fringe was exaggerated much, because actually there are not more delinquents among the rroms than among the non-rroms of equal socio-economic level), but more often manchards (professional of the begging), now present at the the United States where some are specialists in the bonneteau;
  6. Léoutars (of Rumanian Läuta = mandoline), musicians very appreciated in the Balkans and in Central Europe, which appears in films of Emir Kusturica and Tony Gatlif, and spread themselves now in all Europe;
  7. Gabors (of Hungarian Gàbar = maquignon), formerly stockbreeders the chevaaux one, today mechanics and truck drivers in Central Europe,
  8. the Gipsies (also called Kalé ( Black ), mainly in the Iberian peninsula, the North Africa, and south of the France; considered for their spectacles of entertainment, but living mainly trades of the trade and recycling;
  9. Manouches (known also like Sinti or Sinƫi), mainly in Alsace and in other areas of France and Germany; whose trade is, sometimes, the travelling spectacle, more often ironwork and automobile breakage;
  10. the Gipsies (mainly in Great Britain and North America), them so specialized in the trades of the road and metals;
  11. Domars in the Arab countries in particular Egypt, mainly street sweepers and ragmen.

Actually these nicknames, today, do not define any more large-thing, and have to seldom see with the current activity of the people who are attached (still) to these groups.

In 1971, the congress of associations and movements militant rroms adopted a flag like symbol of the Rrom people. On a green bottom (which symbolize the fertile Earth) and intense blue (Sky, freedom), the Chakra is posed (solar wheel with twenty-four rays, symbol of the road and freedom), of the red of the emperor Ashoka or Ashok .

Genetics

The distribution of their Blood group ABO is coherent with that of the warlike castes of the north of India. In fact, a study recently published in the magazine Nature suggests that Rroms are related with the Cingalais of Sri-Lanka, them also originating in India of north.

Studies on the Balkan genetics of Rroms suggest that nearly 50% of the Y chromosomes and DNA mitochondrial observed belong respectively to the Haplogroupe man H and the haplogroupe woman M; both are largely widespread in South Asia and Central Asia. In short, the men correspond mainly to the haplogroupes H (50%), I (22%) and J2 (14%), Rlb (7%); women out of H (35%), M (26%), U3 (10%), X (7%), and others (20%). The haplogroupes man H and woman M are rare in the populations non-rroms, the remainder is in Europe. The female haplogroupes U2i and U7 are practically absent among women rroms, but are present in South Asia (approximately 11%-35%). And one can say that approximately the half of genetic inheritance rrom is similar to those of the surrounding European populations. But the men Sinti of Central Asia are H (20%), J2 (20%) and a high frequency of R2 (50%) which is in India, frequently in Western Bengal and among the Cingal board of the Sri Lanka. The M217 marker, who is present at 1,6% of the men rroms, is also with the Western Bengal (Kivisild (2003) et al.). The haplogroupes L which are at 10% of the Indian men and Pakistani of the North-West are absent at Rroms? (Gresham and its team do not seem to test the haplogroupe L), also originating in Western Bengal and at Sinti in the Central Asia. (Kivisild (2003) et al.). According to the Yhrd database, one sees that some populations rroms (in Europe) have great percentages of halogroupe male R1A1. Yhrd gives also little correspondence with the indo-Pakistani population, but there is a great number of correspondence on the haplogroupe H at indo-paskistanais of London, a group which emigrated of Bengal and India of the south.

See also : Indo-Aryan Migration

Research in genetics of Kalaydjieva showed that the original group appeared in India there is some 32-40 generations (that is to say probably 800 is 1000 years old), and that it was small, less than 1.000 individuals.

Mistrust and persecutions

Because of their wandering lifestyle and their reserves or the resistance which is opposed to their “integration”, there always was a great mutual mistrust between Rroms and their Gadgés neighbors. They were said (and still says) traditionally wandering, robbers, incompetents of a sedentary work, they was and is always the object of constant persecutions, in more or less visible forms. This belief could have given to English the expression gyp someone into something to mean that one notches somebody, although this supposed origin is disputed by the whole of the etymologists. The German name of Rroms, Zigeuner is sometimes wrongly compared to Ziehende Gauner (robbers travellers). Rroms not having sometimes an other choice to accept among them the marginal ones are the subject of amalgams then, as it is the case of all the minorities.

It is as from the 15th century that the state of grace enters the wandering tribes and the populations reverses itself: cities their leaven doors, wearied of the " entretenir" , according to the mentality of then, which perdure. Conflicts burst in the villages, the campaigns are hostile for them because of their tendency to live local resources, instead of yielding with the agricultural work. Their strangeness makes fear, and one shows them of all the evils: petty thieving, flight of hens, horses, and even of children.

They become undesirable and fall, as of the end of the 15th century, under the blow of decrees which go from pure and simple expulsion to the requirement of sedentarisation: they are not the Gypsies who are aimed, but the nomads. The recalcitrant ones are imprisoned, mutilated, sent to the galères or in the colonies, and even carried out. The recurrence of these measurements shows their lack of effectiveness, except with the Netherlands, which manage to all to expel them in the middle of the 19th century.

But such reports can be established in connection with all the nomads of the world, without exception, including the self-sufficing and isolated communities (Amazonia, Southeast Asia, the Sahara, etc), and the policies of retortion or of forced assimilation probably aimed them since the opposition between sedentary farmers or stockbreeders and the nomads.

The lords and the abbeys of Europe accommodated them and protected on their grounds, against the will of the sedentary peasants, since their talents of craftsmen, musicians and dancers were very snuffed. This feudal dependence was the slavery of Rrôms. Monasteries and lords could sell them or buy them; themselves could repurchase their freedom or, on the contrary, be sold. To show their solvency, Rrôms, even slaves, to them they related gold in the form of chains, of bracelets, collars or gold teeth. In Romania for example, this statute lasted of 1370 (fine of the invasions of the Tatars, former guards of Rrôms) with 1856 (reforms of Prince Cuza). Towards the end of the 18th century and throughout the 19th century, enlightened Europe alternates “human” coercion and research solution for the sédentariser, the more so as Rrôms find with the Révolution and the romantic movement an image more positive print of freedom. In Hungary, one gives them grounds and animals, which they resell at once with their neighbors to take again the road. The failure of the majority of these policies is however not an absolute rule, and part of the wandering population sédentarise.

With the Age of Enlightenment, Spain briefly tried to eliminate the statute from marginal from Rroms while trying to prohibit the use of the word gitano , and to assimilate Rroms in the population by forcing them to give up their language and their lifestyle - and effort was obviously vain. More recently, the capacity Mauritanian, native of Niger and Malian engaged of the policies similar against groups Touareg S, of the toubous with the same result, and especially of the armed uprisings in the last two countries. In North America, the Spaniards, then the Americans, always preferred the Pueblos with the “bands” (wandering), obviously taxed with plundering. This problem is universal.

The persecution of Rroms reaches its apogee during the Second world war, when the Nazi Germany exterminates a great number of Rroms. Like the Jews, Rroms are condemned to the destruction, are forced to work, are imprisoned in concentration camps, or simply are killed at sight. It is thought that 220.000 Rroms were assassinated. See Porajmos

Much Rroms continues to live according to their wandering lifestyle, while travelling by roulottes or caravans, but often in Eastern Europe, they live in marginal communities with high unemployment rate. Sometimes (for example at Cäldärasi of Romania, which works copper traditionally), they thrived.

To date, there are still clashes between Rroms and the surrounding sedentary population. The arable land was often a stake in these conflicts, whose Rrôms were the " pions". With the the United Kingdom, the travellers (travellers, in reference at the same time to the Irish Travellers and Rroms) became in 2005 an electoral stake, when the chief of the Conservative party promised to revise the Act of the human rights of 1998. This law, which includes European Convention on the human rights in the legislation of the United Kingdom, is regarded by much as making it possible to guarantee the retrospective right of planning. The important pressures of the population had led the travellers to buy grounds, and to be established by thus circumventing the restrictions of planning imposed on the other local members of the community. In Romania and Bulgaria in the years 1990-2000, when the peasants claimed the restitution of their grounds to the ex-Communists (former directors of Kolkhoze S become contractors of agro-alimentary), the latter placed farm laborers, often Rrôms, on these grounds, not to return them (the law protecting the farmers occupying the soil, against the claims of former owners). They even offered to these Rrôms what to build houses (according to the law of the time, a construction made the piece definitively inalienable). Exasperated, the peasants, here or, expelled Rrôms manu militari and burned their houses there. With the entry of these countries in the European Union, an equitable compensation system should be able to put an end to these conflicts.

Situation in the Eastern European countries

Many countries which belonged to the communist bloc and old the Yugoslavia have many populations of Rroms. The level of integration of Rroms in the company is variable, and certainly more important than the statistics cannot express it, because when Rrom is integrated, it ceases being entered like Rrôm. For example, the Rumanian statistics recognize only one half-million Rrôms, whereas themselves estimate their number between 2 and 4 million.

This is why the image which the Occident has of these Rrôms is enough miserabilist: the Occident is persuaded that in these countries, Rrôms remain almost all in margin of the company, alive in ghettos and surrounded by hatreds (see Chánov). It is true that only a small fraction of the entered Rroms children as such leave graduate the schools, although the school is since the beginning of the 20th century free and obligatory for all, and not only for Rroms. It is true also that before the integration of the Eastern European countries, the only means for a national of these countries of obtaining a territorial asylum in European Union, was to say Rrôm and persecuted as tel. It is true finally, that Rrôms integrated do not draw the attention of the media and ONG, police force to them.

That distorts the image of this community, of which majority, not-entered like " rrôme" , is integrated without particular problems. Reality is far from the image of " S.D.F." , of " robber of poules" or of " population miséreuse" that too many " non-Rrôms" still convey, as in the example of the The Guardian of January 8th, 2003: “As a Czech Republic, 75% of the Rroms children follow courses in schools for problem childs, and the unemployment rate of Rrôms is of 70% (in comparison with the national unemployment rate of 9%). In Hungary, 44% of the Rroms children are in special schools, and unemployment rate is of 74% for the men and 83% for the Rroms women. As Slovakia, the Rroms children are 28 times more sent in special schools than the non-Rroms; unemployment rate at Rroms reaches 85%. ”

In certain countries where the social coverage is solid, the dependence of the populations marginalized with respect to the security systems social belongs to the problem. For some Rroms families, it is to better live with the allowances rather than to have ridiculous wages. Then the problems come of anger against Rroms, the conditions facilitating the offenses, and the extreme sensitivity to the changes of social security. An good example of the latter is the Slovakia, where the reduction of the allowances (which are due only starting from the third child) led to civil disorders in some villages rroms. In June 2004, Lívia Járóka became the first Rrom Slovak member of the European Parliament (it had been preceded by only one before), elected on the list of right-hand side of the Hungarian Party Fidesz, and followed the accession of the country to the European Union. The first Rrom representative was Juan de Dios Ramirez-Heredia, of Spain.

Like the other ethnicities, Rroms face the rigidity of the economic systems and social in Europe, which prevent them from being integrated. Great Britain, which is seen like one of the freest economies on the market, received much Rroms d' Europe of the East, probably for this reason.

Seven States of the old communist bloc launched the initiative Décennie of the integration of Rroms in 2005, to improve the socio-economic conditions and the statute of the minority rrom.

Traditions

In certain families, a chief, to carry the title of Rrom, must follow the law of the group: so that he is chief he must have all the recognition of the group, and belong to Krishtarie, groups privileged in which he must be initiated. A rrôm chief carries readily royal or imperial titles car-decreed, even if its authority is recognized only by a few thousands of people; it must build a castle (like these palates with pinnacles silver plated or gilded that one sees in many Rumanian villages) to receive its " sujets" at the time of the family festivals.

Indeed, Rroms traditional make of the wide family a value of the more high importance. Virginity is essential among nonmarried women. The men and the women marry young people. There were controversies in several countries about marriages between children in lower part of the age of assent. In 2003, one of many the " rois" picturesque of a rrom family, Ilie Tortică, banished those of its subjects which gave their children in marriage too early. Some transfer this decision like energy against the traditional practices rroms. A rival patriarch rrom, Cioabă Guilder, badly put the Romanian authorities at ease at the end of 2003, when it decided to marry his more young girl 12 year old.

At certain Rroms, the family of the husband must pay the dowry with the parents of future. The social behavior of certain Rroms is regulated in a strict way by the law on the purity ( marime ), still respected by the majority of Rroms (except Moslems) and among the groups Sinti by the older generations. This rule affects many aspects of the everyday life, and is applied to the actions, the individuals and the things. The parts of the human body which is regarded as impure are for example: genitals, because they produce impure emissions, and the bottom of the body. The nails of the hands and the feet must be filed, because to cut them is impure. Clothing of the bottom of the body, and clothing of the women who have their rules is washed separately. The ustensils of table are also washed in a place with share. The childbirth is regarded as impure, and must be accomplished outside the residence; the mother is also regarded as impure during 40 days. Death is impure, in the same way that all the family of late for a certain period. The person deceased must be buried, and not burned to enter to the Paradise.

Religion

It was suggested that, lorqu' they were still in India, Rroms were Hindouiste S, the word rromani for " croix" , trushul , is the same word as the Sanscrit " trishula " who indicates the three-pronged fork of Shiva. But considering the statute which the hindouism held for them, their practices, on arrival in Europe, were more connected with the initial Chamanisme their guards Tatars and with the divination.

Rroms often adopted the dominant religion of the country where they were, by keeping however their special system of beliefs. The majority of Rroms are Catholique S, orthodoxe or Musulman S. Those which are in Western Europe or the United States are either catholic, or Protesting S. In Latin America, much kept their European religion: the majority are orthodoxe. In Turkey, Egypt and in the south of the Balkans, they are often Moslem. The religion rrom developed an acute sense of morality, interdicts, and the supernatural one, although this last is often disparaged by the organized religions.

After the Second world war, a growing number of joined Rroms of the movements evangelic, and for the first time, of Rroms engage as religious leaders, by creating their own churches and organizations missionaries. In certain countries, the majority of Rroms belong now to Churches rroms. This unforeseen change with contributed largely to the improvement of their image in the company. Work that they make is perceived like more legitimate, and they started to obtain legal licenses to carry on their marketing activities.

Evangelic churches rroms exist today in each country where Rroms settled. The movement is particularly strong in France and Spain (in this last country, there is more than one thousand of churches rroms, called " Filadelfia" , of which already a hundred with Madrid). In Germany, the group most is that of Polish Rroms, which has their principal church with Mannheim. Other important and many assemblies exist with Los Angeles, Houston, Buenos Aires and Mexico City. Some groups of Romania and Chile joined the adventist Église of the seventh day.

In Balkans, Rroms of Macedonia and Kosovo were particularly active in mystical fraternities soufies. The Moslem immigrants rroms towards Western Europe and the United States brought these traditions with them.

Prophetic beliefs and connotations

Even when the Tziganes join with the wire of the centuries such or such religion, they do not forget by their origins. Those go up very far in the past and the Mythologie (see below), and what sometimes became elsewhere folklore or superstition remains a true belief often on their premises. Principal the, frequent one among people having suffered from rejections and deportations, is the hope to be one day all joined together. This hope takes, in the beliefs, a prophetic turn: with the ultimate gathering on a mythical place of origin the End of the world is associated current, from where must bring out a better world.

Rrom culture

Festivals

Music

See also: Gypsy music

Cinematography

Literature

Rroms authors

  • Rajko Djuric (1947 -):
    • Without houses, without tomb - Bi kheresqo Bi limoresqo (collection of poems), Paris, Harmattan, s.d.
    • dreams of Jesus Christ , Montpellier, N&B, 1996
    • Malheur which will survive the account of our death, Buzet-on-Tarn, N&B, 2003
  • Mateo Maximoff (1917 - 1999):
  • Jan Yoors (1922 - 1977)
    • Tziganes on the road with the Romanians Lovara , ED. Phébus libretto
  • Esméralda Romanez 1949 France
    • " Ways of the rainbow " , edition wallada
    • " Very favorites in blows of gueule" , Lacours edition in Nimes

Fictional representations of Rroms

Certain famous fictions contributed to model the representation of the world rrom in the imaginary collective, like Notre-Dame de Paris of Victor Hugo and Carmen of Georges Bizet.

Here some other notable fictions:

  • the gipsy of Miguel de Cervantes.
  • Weddings of blood of Federico García Lorca.
  • the Quadrant of Orphée of Robertson Davies, whose main characters perpetuate in the Canada of today the traditions gipsies, like the care and the repair of the musical instruments.
  • Mulengro , novel of the Canadian author of contemporary fiction Charles de Lint, presents a portrait of Rrom and its cultural myths.
  • The Experiment , novel of Stephen (Barbara) Kyle has as a subject Rrom American which is the sister of a victim of the experimentation Nazi.
  • Fires in the Dark of Louise Doughty is a work of fiction on an experiment rrom in the Central Europe during the Second world war.

Among works of French popular literature contributing to transmit stereotypes on the world rrom, one can quote the songs. Indeed, since the middle of the 19th century until today, the song often evokes the topic of the gypsy (man or woman), under various nominations: gipsy, manouche, gipsy, gypsy or Tzigane. Same stereotypes that in the novel or the opera are used. Cf the article of Eliane Daphy, ethnologist, “Gipsy with the large black eyes… Test on the character gypsy in the song”, in Studies Tziganes nlle series vol. 9 (Tziganes of the literature, literature of the Tziganes, Patrick Williams and Evelyne Pommerat eds.), pp. 113 - 128 (5 it.) available in files open on Hall-SHS.

Spectacle

Rroms are known to be excellent Musicien S and Danse the USSR. In Spain, they influenced the Flamenco and they became the protagonists of this kind. In the majority of the Central European country and Eastern (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia…), the musicians gypsies were very required for the marriages, funeral, etc In Romania one calls them lăutari , as a Czech Republic and Slovakia lavutari . In France, their talents of public entertainers and horse-breakers generated the famous families of the circus like the Bouglione or the Zavatta.

Rroms famous

Groups with similar lifestyles

See the article: " Travelling entertainers " in France

In Europe, where the sedentary lifestyle is the standard since Antiquity, other wandering people nonoriginating in India are also called Gipsies or Tziganes by convenience. In Germany, in Switzerland, in France and Austria, there exists thus a group of white Tziganes , called Jenische (in German), Yéniche (in French), and Yenish or Yeniche (in English). Their language seems to be identical grammatically to the other Germanic Swiss dialects, the origin of the lexicon mixes on the other hand German, the rromani, the Yiddish and other words.

In Norway (and with a less degree in Sweden and in Denmark) there exists a group which names itself Tatere; they are often confused with Rroms. Tater was often employed to build roads and railroads in Norway, Sweden and in Denmark, and this is why one confuses them with Rroms. Their name comes from a belief according to which they would be originating in the wandering people tatar. The Norwegian rocker Åge Aleksandersen is one To touch.

There is in Ireland, with the the United Kingdom and the the United States a group called Irish Gypsies ( Irish Gipsies ) or Irish Travellers ( Irish Voyageurs ). In Scotland, one calls them " tinkers" , of Irish " tinceard" , which wants to say " ferblantier" ; this term became pejorative, and the word Irish Travellers is currently preferred, but they name them even " Pavees ". They are not connected genetically to Rroms, but their wandering culture was influenced by those. Their language, the shelta, is based mainly on a lexicon Gaelic and a grammar based on English, with rromani influences.

The Quinqui or Mercheros of Spain are a minority group, before wandering, which shares the lifestyle of Rroms Spanish. Their origin, perhaps were dubious peasants without ground at the 16th century. The quinqui often remained with share of Rroms, even if they shared same persecutions.

Lastly, by extension and without abuse language, one calls " Gipsies of the sea " ( Sea Gypsies ) of the populations of Southeast Asia which live on boats and carry out a wandering lifestyle: Moken of Burma and Thailand, Orang Laut of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, Bajau of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and of the Filipino . These people do not have anything commun run with Roms, if it is not the nomadism. Their nickname is really an abuse language, because a common point in all Rrôms (even integrated) is their love of the road and their mistrust with respect to water, and especially of the sea: when Rrôm is obliged to embark on a ship, they is generally placed so as not to see the sea and as much as possible in the center not to feel the movements of them. In many languages of the Middle East and Eastern Europe, there exists even a saying: “to drown like Rrôm with two fingers of the shore”. This aversion for water is perhaps a memory of time when it was necessary to cross the rivers to ford, dangerous and expensive operation in human lives.

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