Roma communities today Historical background, culture and current issues

1. ANTH 4020/5020 Roma communities todayHistorical background, culture and current issues Week 3 Class 2: Origins, migration and today’s population

2. Today‘s outline • Conflicting theories about Roma origins • Summary origins • Marushiakova & Popov. 2001. ‘Historical and ethnographic background: Gypsies, Roma, Sinti’ • „Short story“ & discussion 5. Text: Liégeois, Jean-Pierre. 1994. Roma, Gypsies, Travellers. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, pp. 29-42 (Ch. 2: Populations).

3. Conflicting theories about Romani Origins (1) 1 commonality: The cradle of the Gypsy nation is North India Kenrick, Donald and Puxon, Grattan. 1972. The Destiny of Europe’s Gypsies. • Roma ancestors left their homeland in the 10th cent. • Travelled in several different unrelated groups to Europe Tcherenkov, Lev and Laederich, Stéphane. 2004. The Rroma. • Roma left India before the 8th cent. ( no arabic loanwords) • All Roma originate from the same wave of migration from India • They belonged to the caste of the Dom (still existing India)

4. Conflicting theories about Romani Origins (2) Ian Hancock. 2002. We are the Romani people. • Ancestors of Roma left India after 1000.  first account in Byzantine Empire from 1068 • left homeland in 1 migration wave • represented a population of closely related groups • are descendants of the Indian Rajput tribes …

5. Summary: Origins (I) • all scholars agree: the Roma came from (Central or Northern) India • Based on the language of the Roma their original homeland as well as migration routes could be traced back  Layered structure: “road map” with acquisitions from the countries they passed on their itinerary • Reason for original emigration remains unknown; different hypotheses exist • One or several migration waves?

6. Summary: Origins (II) • There are diverse documents from the 13th and 14th cent. that possibly indicate the presence of the Roma in Europe • Upon their arrival in the Balkan and surrounding countries the Roma were able to find work as blacksmiths and other jobs • Symbiotic relationship with the local population • Roma established homes & settlements and lived a sedentary lifestyle

7. Summary: Origins (III) • Many Roma moved further on to Central and Western Europe in the 15th cent. in the course of the expansion of the Turks • Various European Aristocrats issued the Roma “travel documents” • The Leaders of the travelling groups called themselves “Counts” or “Kings” and said they were originally Christians, but had lost their fate and were therefore forced to travel • The travelling groups were small (<100 people) • Received a lot of (negative) attention mistrust

8. The itinerary of the Roma(Source: http://www.rroma.org/rroma_history/migration_map.html)

9. Marushiakova & Popov (2001) ‘Historical and ethnographic background: Gypsies, Roma, Sinti’ Summary: • Roma form a specific “intergroup ethnic community” without parallels in Europe • The region of Eastern Europe has a rich and complex history which is reflected in the differences in the situation of the Roma in the different countries of the region. • Present-day Roma of Eastern Europe are extremely diverse and can be classified on the basis of key criteria  language, lifestyle, boundaries of endogamy, professional specialization, duration of settlement in specific countires, asf.

10. Summary (2):Marushiakova & Popov (2001) ‘Historical and …’ 1. Ottoman Empire: Civil status of Gypsies preserved but lower than that of non-Gypsies Policy aim: maintenance of status quo – but free option of voluntary assimilation 2. Austro-Hungarian Empire: State control over lives of Gypsies, paternalistic role of state in deciding Gypsies’ “best interests”, deliberate policy of “civilising” a “primitive people” Policy aim: enforced total assimilation 3. Russian Empire: On the whole, non-interference in the internal life of Gypsies. Policy aim: sporadic attempts at integration but lack of any consistent policy

11. Summary (3):Marushiakova & Popov (2001) ‘Historical and …’ “In the countries of former Austro-Hungary, Gypsies were regarded first and foremost as a social problem and state policy assumed a mainly paternalistic nature, while in other countries Gypsy-related problems were seen as primarily ethnic in character, with an added touch of religion in the Balkans” (Marushiakova & Popov, 2001, pp. 47).

12. A Rom‘s view on origins … Beginningofthechapter „Hindupen from: Isabel Fonseca‘s „Bury mestanding“ (1996)

13. Text: Liégeois, Jean-Pierre. 1994. Roma, Gypsies, Travellers. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, pp. 29-42 (Ch. 2: Populations). Short presentation by Kelsey

14. Present Populations (1) • Difficult to number, because: - administration of some states wants to "reduce" the number of Roma living in their land - “Gypsy” ethnic identity was discouraged (and referring terminology disappeared from official documents) - Roma activists tend to cite high numbers. - definition criteria are politically determined – and Gypsy or the vague terms used (Travellers) may not mean anything to the population in question - Many Roma do not declare themselves as such, because of caution born of centuries of persecution - Sedentary Gypsies were often not included

15. Present Populations (2) Example from Bulgaria (see Liegeois 1994, p. 32): (Published) official census 1956: 195,000 Gypsies Unpublished census 1975: 373,000 Gypsies Secret census 1980: 524,000 Gypsies Ministry of the interior census 1989: 576,000 Gypsies Update of 1992: 552,000 Gypsies

16. Present Populations (3) It is only possible to give a range of numbers, from low estimates to high estimates for any given country.  The world Roma population is between 6'000'000 and 12'000'000.

17. European Roma Population Source: http://www.rroma.org/booklet_on_rroma/english_brochure.pdf