The Punjab The Punjab The Punjab (pronounced or ; Punjabi: ਪੰਜਾਬ, The Punjab (pronounced or ; [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]: [[Gurmukhī script|ਪੰਜਾਬ]], The Punjab (pronounced or ; [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]: [[Gurmukhī script|ਪੰਜਾਬ]], [[Shahmukhi script|, ), also spelled Panjab around 250 B.C. In the centuries spent here, there may have been close interaction with such established groups as the Rajputs and the Jats. Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves, is believed to have occurred between 500 A.D. and 1000 A.D. Contemporary populations sometimes suggested as sharing a close relationship to the Romani are the
Dom peopleThe Dom of the Middle East are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group. Some authors relate them to the Domba people of India.They have a rich oral tradition and express their culture and history through music, poetry and dance...
of
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
and the
Banjara
of India.
The emigration from India likely took place in the context of the raids by
Mahmud of GhazniMahmud of Ghazni , also known as ' was the most prominent ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty and ruled from 997 until his death in 1030...
As these soldiers were defeated, they were moved west with their families into the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
. The 11th century
terminus post quem is due to the Romani language showing unambiguous features of the Modern Indo-Aryan languages, precluding an emigration during the Middle Indic period.
Genetic evidence supports the medieval migration from India. The Romanies have been described as "a conglomerate of genetically isolated founder populations", while a number of common
Mendelian disorders among Romanies from all over Europe indicates "a common origin and founder effect". See also this table:
A study from 2001 by Gresham et al. suggests "a limited number of related founders, compatible with a small group of migrants splitting from a distinct caste or tribal group". The same study found that "a single lineage ... found across Romani populations, accounts for almost one-third of Romani males." See also the
Cohen Modal HaplotypeY-chromosomal Aaron is the name given to the hypothesised most recent common ancestor of many of the patrilineal Jewish priestly caste known as Kohanim .In the Hebrew Bible this ancestor is identified as Aaron, the brother of Moses.Researches have indicated that about half of contemporary Jewish...
.
A 2004 study by Morar et al. concluded that the Romani population "was founded approximately 32–40 generations ago, with secondary and tertiary founder events occurring approximately 16–25 generations ago".
Possible connection with the Jat people
While the South Asian origin of the Romani people has been long considered a certitude, the exact South Asian group from whom the Romanies have descended has been a matter of debate. The recent discovery of the "Jat mutation" that causes a type of
glaucomaGlaucoma is a group of diseases that affect the optic nerve and involves a loss of retinal ganglion cells in a characteristic pattern. It is a type of optic neuropathy. Raised intraocular pressure is a significant risk factor for developing glaucoma...
in Romani populations suggests that the Romani people are the descendants of the
Jat peopleThe Jatt people or Jat are an ethnic group native mainly to the Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan belt of northern India, including a large international immigrant diaspora...
found in Northern India and Pakistan.
This contradicted an earlier study that compared the most common haplotypes found in Romani groups with those found in Jatt Sikhs and Jats from Haryana and found no matches. The
haplogroup HIn human genetics, Haplogroup H is a Y-chromosome haplogroup.This haplogroup is found at a high frequency in Indian Subcontinent. It is generally rare outside of the Indian subcontinent but is common among the Roma people, particularly the H-M82 subgroup.-Origins:It is a branch of Haplogroup F,...
, which is the most common haplogroup in Romanis is far more prevalent in central India and south India than it is in northern India, where
haplogroup R1aHaplogroup R1a is a major Y-chromosome haplogroup currently found at high frequencies in most of Eastern Europe and parts of Central and Northern Europe, as well as in certain populations in Central and South Asia.-Subclades:...
lineages makes up at least half of male ancestries, and
haplogroup HIn human genetics, Haplogroup H is a Y-chromosome haplogroup.This haplogroup is found at a high frequency in Indian Subcontinent. It is generally rare outside of the Indian subcontinent but is common among the Roma people, particularly the H-M82 subgroup.-Origins:It is a branch of Haplogroup F,...
is rare.
Appearance in Europe
In 1322 CE a
FranciscanThe term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, also known as the Orders of Friars Minor, that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis", or a member of one of these orders. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and...
monkA monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, whilst always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
named Symon Semeonis described people resembling these "atsinganoi" living in
CreteCrete is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km²...
and in 1350 CE Ludolphus of Sudheim mentioned a similar people with a unique language whom he called
Mandapolos, a word which some theorize was possibly derived from the Greek word
mantes (meaning
prophetIn religion, a prophet is a person who has been contacted by, or has encountered, the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other humans...
or fortune teller).
Around 1360, an independent Romani
fiefdomUnder the system of medieval European feudalism, a fiefdom, fief, feud, feoff, or fee, often consisted of inheritable lands or revenue-producing property granted by a liege lord, generally to a vassal, in return for a form of allegiance, originally to give him the means to fulfill his military...
(called the
Feudum AcinganorumThe Feudum Acinganorum was an independent Romani fiefdom established around 1360 in Corfu, which became "a settled community and an important and established part of the economy."- References :*...
) was established in
CorfuCorfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and its northern part lies off the coast of Sarandë, Albania from which it is separated by straits varying in breadth from 3 to 23 km , including one near ancient Butrint, while its southern part lies...
and became "a settled community and an important and established part of the economy."
By the 14th century, the Romanies had reached the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
; by 1424 CE,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
; and by the 16th century,
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
. Some Romanies
migratedHuman migration is movement by humans from one district to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups....
from Persia through North Africa, reaching the
Iberian PeninsulaThe Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas...
in the 15th century. The two currents met in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. Romanies began immigrating to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in colonial times, with small groups in
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
and
French LouisianaLouisiana or French Louisiana was the name of an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682-1763 and 1800-03, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV of France, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle...
.
Larger-scale immigration began in the 1860s, with groups of Romnichal from Britain. The largest number immigrated in the early 1900s, mainly from the Vlax group of Kalderash. Many Romanies also settled in
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
.
When the Romani people arrived in Europe, curiosity was soon followed by hostility and
xenophobiaXenophobia is a dislike and/or fear of that which is unknown or different from oneself. It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear." The term is typically used to describe a fear or dislike of foreigners or of people significantly different from...
. Romanies were enslaved for five centuries in
WallachiaWallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
and
MoldaviaMoldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
until abolition in 1856. Elsewhere in Europe, they were subject to
ethnic cleansingEthnic cleansing is a term that has come to be used broadly to describe all forms of ethnically inspired violence, ranging from murder, rape, and torture to the forcible removal of populations...
, abduction of their children, and forced labor. In
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, there were hangings and expulsions of the Romani; in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, branding and the shaving of heads; in
MoraviaMoravia is a historical region in central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, one of the former Czech lands. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region.-Geography:...
and
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
severing of ears of women. As a result, large groups of the Romani travelled back East, towards
PolandThe Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed by the union of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569. The new Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th-century Europe....
, which was more tolerant, and
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where the Romani were also treated less heavy-handedly, as long as they paid the annual taxes.
World War II
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the
NazisNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
embarked on systematic attempt at
genocideGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
of the Romanies, known as the
PorajmosThe Porajmos is a Romani term introduced by Romani scholar and activist Ian Hancock to describe attempts by the regime in Nazi Germany to exterminate most of the Romani people of Europe as part of the Holocaust.The phenomenon has been little studied and largely overshadowed by the Shoah The...
. They were marked for extermination and sentenced to forced labor and imprisonment in concentration camps. They were often killed on sight, especially by the
EinsatzgruppenEinsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary groups that took part in the systematic killing of mostly civilians throughout occupied Eastern Europe during World War II.-Background:...
(essentially mobile killing units) on the Eastern Front. The total number of victims has been variously estimated at between 220,000 to 1,500,000; even the lowest number would count as one of the largest mass murders in history.
Post-1945
In
CommunistCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
Eastern Europe, Romanies experienced assimilation schemes and restrictions of cultural freedom. The Romani language and Romani music were banned from public performance in
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
. In
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, they were labeled a "socially degraded stratum," and Romani women were sterilized as part of a state policy to reduce their population. This policy was implemented with large financial incentives, threats of denying future welfare payments, with misinformation, or after administering drugs (Silverman 1995;
Helsinki WatchHelsinki Watch was a private American NGO devoted to monitoring Helsinki implementation throughout the Soviet bloc. It was created in 1978 to monitor compliance to the Helsinki Final Act...
1991). An official inquiry from the Czech Republic, resulting in a report (December 2005), concluded that the Communist authorities had practiced an assimilation policy towards Roma, which "included efforts by social services to control the birth rate in the Romani community" and that "the problem of sexual sterilization carried out in the Czech Republic, either with improper motivation or illegally, exists" with new revealed cases up until 2004, in both the
Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe that is sometimes considered to be Eastern European. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague...
and
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
.
Society and culture
The traditional Romanies place a high value on the
extended familyThe term Extended family has several distinct meanings. First, it is used synonymously with consanguineous family or joint family. Second, in societies dominated by the conjugal family or nuclear family, it is used to refer to kindred who does not belong to the conjugal family. Often there could be...
.
VirginityA virgin is, originally, a woman who has never had sexual intercourse. Virginity is the state of being a virgin. It is derived from the Latin virgo, which means "sexually inexperienced woman", used typically of adolescents, but also of older women, and even goddesses.As in Latin, the English word...
is essential in unmarried women. Both men and women often marry young; there has been controversy in several countries over the Romani practice of
child marriageChild marriage usually refers to two separate social phenomena which are practiced in some societies. The first and more widespread practice is that of marrying a young child to an adult...
. Romani law establishes that the man's family must pay a
bride priceBride price, also known as bride wealth, is an amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom...
to the bride's parents, but only traditional families still follow this rule.
Once married, the woman joins the husband's family, where her main job is to tend to her husband's and her children's needs, as well as to take care of her in-laws. The power structure in the traditional Romani household has at its top the oldest man or grandfather, and men in general have more authority than women. However, women gain respect and authority as they get older. Young wives begin gaining authority once they have children.
Romani
social behaviorIn biology, psychology and sociology social behavior is behavior directed towards society, or taking place between, members of the same species. Behavior such as predation which involves members of different species is not social...
is strictly regulated by Hindu purity laws ("marime" or "marhime"), still respected by most Roma (and by most older generations of Sinti). This regulation affects many aspects of life, and is applied to actions, people and things: parts of
the human bodyHuman anatomy, which, with physiology and biochemistry, is a complementary basic medical science is primarily the scientific study of the morphology of the adult human body. Anatomy is subdivided into gross anatomy and microscopic anatomy...
are considered impure: the
genital organsA sex organ, or primary sexual characteristic, as narrowly defined, is any of the anatomical parts of the body which are involved in sexual reproduction and constitute the reproductive system in a complex organism; in mammals, these include:*Female...
(because they produce emissions), as well as the rest of the lower body. Fingernails and toenails must be filed with an emery board, as cutting them with a clipper is a
tabooA taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and forbidden. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. The term comes from the Tongan language, and appears in many Polynesian cultures...
. Clothes for the lower body, as well as the clothes of
menstruatingMenstruation is the shedding of the uterine lining . It occurs on a regular basis in reproductive-age females of certain mammal species. Overt menstruation is found primarily in humans and close evolutionary relatives such as chimpanzees...
women, are washed separately. Items used for eating are also washed in a different place. Childbirth is considered impure, and must occur outside the dwelling place. The mother is considered impure for forty days after giving birth. Death is considered impure, and affects the whole family of the dead, who remain impure for a period of time. However, in contrast to the practice of
crematingCremation is the process of reducing human remains to basic chemical compounds in the form of gases and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high temperatures and vaporization....
the dead, Romani dead must be buried. Cremation and burial are both known from the time of the
RigvedaThe Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas...
, and both are widely practiced in
HinduismHinduism is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as ', a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law", by its adherents. Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti tradition, as...
today (although the tendency for higher caste groups is to burn, while lower caste groups in South India tend to bury their dead). Some animals are also considered impure, for instance cats because they lick themselves.
Religion
Migrant Romani populations have adopted the dominant religion of their country of residence, while often preserving aspects of older belief systems and forms of worship. Most Eastern European Romanies are Roman Catholic or
Orthodox ChristianThe Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to in English speaking countries as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the world's second largest Christian communion, estimated to number 225 million members...
or
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
. Those in western Europe and the United States are mostly Roman Catholic or Protestant. In Turkey, Egypt, and the Balkans, the Romanies are split into Christian and Muslim populations.
Music
Romani music plays an important role in Eastern European countries such as
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
,
Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
, Serbia,
MontenegroMontenegro , is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the south...
, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia,
AlbaniaAlbania , officially the Republic of Albania , is a Mediterranean country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south-east...
, Hungary, and Romania, and the style and performance practices of Romani musicians have influenced European
classical composers such as
Franz LisztFranz Liszt was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher....
and
Johannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms , German composer and pianist, was one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
. The
lăutariThe Romanian word Lăutar denotes a class of traditional musicians. Most often, and by tradition, Lăutari are members of a professional clan of Romani musicians , also called Ţigani lăutari. The term is derived from Lăută the name of a string instrument...
who perform at traditional Romanian weddings are virtually all Roma. Probably the most internationally prominent contemporary performers in the
lăutari tradition are
Taraful HaiducilorTaraf de Haïdouks are a troupe of Romanian Roma musicians, from the town of Clejani, the most prominent such group in Romania in the post-Communist Era....
. Bulgaria's popular "wedding music", too, is almost exclusively performed by Romani musicians such as Ivo Papasov, a virtuoso clarinetist closely associated with this genre and Bulgarian pop-folk singer
AzisAzis is a Bulgarian Romani chalga singer known for, among other things, his atypical gender expression and his flamboyant persona....
. Many famous
classical musicClassical music is the mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times...
ians, such as the Hungarian
pianistA pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
Georges CziffraGeorges Cziffra was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist. He became a French citizen in 1968....
, are Roma, as are many prominent performers of
maneleclass="wikitable" border="1"|-|}Manele is a music style from the Balkans, mainly derived from Turkish, Greek, Arab or Serbian love songs. It originates in Romania, but similar music styles are also present and widespread in Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, parts of Turkey and with...
.
Zdob şi ZdubZdob şi Zdub are a Moldovan musical group, based in Chişinău, whose work for the last several years combines elements of hip-hop and hardcore punk with traditional Moldovan music and Roma music. The name is onomatopoeic for the sound of a drum beat...
, one of the most prominent
rockRock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....
bands in
MoldovaMoldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south....
, although not Romanies themselves, draw heavily on Romani music, as do
Spitalul de UrgenţăSpitalul de Urgenţă, literally "Emergency Hospital", is a Romanian pop band, integrating elements of traditional Romanian music into a sometimes hard-edged rock sound, although also incorporating influences as diverse as Balkan folk music, European classical music, and cartoon soundtrack music.The...
in Romania,
Goran BregovićGoran Bregović is a Yugoslav musician, from Bosnia and Herzegovina of Serbian and Croatian descent, and one of the most internationally known modern composers of the Balkans. He currently lives in Belgrade, Serbia, where to he came after civil war in ex Yugoslavia had started.Bregović has composed...
in Serbia,
Darko RundekDarko Rundek is a Croatian rock singer, songwriter, poet, and actor. His music career started in the early '80s, as the frontman of the world music influenced rock band Haustor. Living in France since 1991, he recorded three albums with various musicians from different parts of the world: U...
in Croatia,
BeirutBeirut is an American band. It began as the solo musical project of -year-old Santa Fe, New Mexico native Zachary Francis Condon, and later evolved into a band led by Condon. Their first performances were in May 2006, to support the release of their debut album, Gulag Orkestar...
and
Gogol BordelloGogol Bordello is a multi-ethnic Gypsy punk band from the Lower East Side of New York City that formed in 1999 and is known for its theatrical stage shows. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Gypsy music, as its core members are immigrants from Eastern Europe...
in the United States.
Another tradition of Romani music is the genre of the Gypsy
brass bandA brass band is a musical group generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles which include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
, with such notable practitioners as
Boban MarkovićBoban Marković is a Serbian trumpet player and brass ensemble leader from Vladičin Han, frequently recognized as the greatest trumpet player to emerge from the Balkans...
of Serbia, and the brass
lăutari groups
Fanfare CiocărliaFanfare Ciocârlia is a popular twelve-piece Roma brass band from the northeastern Romanian village of Zece Prăjini. The band began as a loose assemblage of part-time musicians playing at local weddings and baptisms. In October 1996, the German sound engineer and record producer Henry Ernst visited...
and Fanfare din Cozmesti of Romania.
The distinctive sound of Romani music has also strongly influenced
boleroBolero is a name given to certain slow-tempo latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms, which are both significant, and which have separate origins. The term is also used for some art music...
,
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
, and
flamencoFlamenco is a Spanish musical genre with origins in Andalusia. It can be both a musical form, known for its intricate rapid passages, and a dance characterized by audible footwork. The origins of the term are unclear...
(especially
cante jondoCante jondo is a vocal style in flamenco. An unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music, the name means deep song It is generally considered that the common traditional classification of flamenco music is divided into three groups of which the deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo...
) in Europe. European-style
Gypsy jazzGypsy jazz is an idiom often said to have been started by guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt in the 1930s. Because its origins are largely in France it is often called by the French name, "Jazz manouche," or alternatively, "manouche jazz," even in English language sources...
("jazz Manouche" or "Sinti jazz") is still widely practiced among the original creators (the Romanie People); one who acknowledged this artistic debt was guitarist
Django ReinhardtJean "Django" Reinhardt was a Belgian Gypsy jazz guitarist.One of the first prominent European jazz musicians, Reinhardt remains one of the most renowned jazz guitarists due to his innovative and distinctive playing...
. Contemporary artists in this tradition known internationally include
Stochelo RosenbergStochelo Rosenberg is a Sinti-Gypsy jazz guitarist who plays in the Jazz manouche style of Django Reinhardt and leads the Rosenberg Trio.-With The Rosenberg Trio:...
,
Biréli LagrèneBiréli Lagrène is a French guitarist and bassist. He came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Rheinhardt influenced style. He often performs within the swing, jazz fusion and post bop mediums.- Biography :...
,
Jimmy RosenbergJoseph Rosenberg is a Dutch musician , known for his virtuoso playing of jazz, string swing, and gypsy jazz....
, and
Tchavolo SchmittTchavolo Schmitt is a noted guitarist in gypsy jazz. He had some success with others in the 1970s, but then settled in Strasbourg and left the professional circuit for a time. He started putting out albums under his own name in 2000...
.
The Romanies of Turkey have achieved musical acclaim from national and local audiences. Local performers usually perform for special holidays. Their music is usually performed on instruments such as the
darbukaThe goblet drum is a goblet shaped hand drum used mostly in Arabic, Assyrian, Persian, Balkan, Greek, Armenian, Azeri and Turkish music. Its thin, responsive drumhead and resonance help it produce a distinctively crisp sound...
and
gırnataThe clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet...
. A number of nationwide best seller performers are said to be of Romani origin.
Language
Most Romanies speak one of several dialects of
RomaniRomani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is the language of the Romani people. It is an Indo-Aryan language, sometimes included in either the "Central" or the "Northwestern" group, sometimes treated as a branch of its own.Romani is a macrolanguage in the ISO 639 classification, taken to consist of...
, an
Indo-AryanThe Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family.SIL International in a 2005 estimate counted a total of 209 varieties, the largest in terms of native speakers being Hindustani , Bengali , Punjabi , Marathi ,...
language. They also will often speak the languages of the countries they live in. Typically, they also incorporate
loanwordA loanword is a word borrowed from one language and incorporated into another.-General:By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept, whereby it is the meaning or idiom that is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself.The word loanword is itself a calque of the German...
s and
calqueIn linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation....
s into Romani from the languages of those countries, especially words for terms that the Romani language does not have. Most of the
Ciganos of Portugal, the Gitanos of Spain, the
RomnichalThe Romanichals are groups of Romani people found in some parts of the United Kingdom, notably England. The word "Romanichal" is derived from Romani chal, where chal is Angloromani for "fellow"....
of the UK, and
Scandinavian TravellersThe Norwegian and Swedish Travellers are a group or branch of the Romani people that have been resident in Norway and Sweden for some 500 years, as distinct from other Romanies who arrived starting in the late 19th century...
have lost their knowledge of pure Romani, and respectively speak the
mixed languageA mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source...
s
CalóCaló or Spanish Romani is a dialect spoken by the Spanish Romanies, Gitanos or Zincarli originating from Spain: Caló blends native Romani vocabulary with Spanish grammar, as Spanish Romanies lost the full use of their ancestral language.Gitanos used Caló to communicate discreetly in their...
, Angloromany, and
ScandoromaniScandoromani , also known as Tavringer Romani, is a form of the Romani language. It is currently spoken by the Norwegian and Swedish Travellers, a Romani minority community, in Sweden and Norway ."Scandoromani" is a term coined by academics...
.
There are independent groups currently working toward
standardizing the languageThere are independent groups currently working toward standardizing the Romani language, including groups in Romania, Serbia, the USA, and Sweden.-Where it is being pursued:A standardized form of Romani is used in Serbia...
, including groups in Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, the USA, and Sweden. Romani is not currently spoken in India.
Historical persecution
The first and one of the most enduring persecutions against the Romani people was the enslaving of the Romanies who arrived on the territory of the historical Romanian states of
WallachiaWallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
and
MoldaviaMoldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
, which lasted from the 14th century until the second half of the 19th century. Legislation decreed that all the Romanies living in these states, as well as any others who would immigrate there, were slaves.
The arrival of some branches of the Romani people in
Western EuropeWestern Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe...
in the 15th century was precipitated by the
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
conquest of the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. Although the Romanies themselves were refugees from the conflicts in southeastern Europe, they were mistaken by the local population in the West, because of their foreign appearance, as part of the
Ottoman invasionThe wars of the Ottoman Empire in Europe are also sometimes referred to as the Ottoman Wars or as Turkish Wars, particularly in older, European texts.- Rise :...
(the German Reichstags at Landau and Freiburg in 1496-1498 declared the Romanies as spies of the Turks). In Western Europe, this resulted in a violent history of persecution and attempts of ethnic cleansing until the modern era. As time passed, other accusations were added against local Romanies (accusations specific to this area, against non-assimilated minorities), like that of bringing the plague, usually sharing their burden together with the local Jews.
One example of official persecution of the Romani is exemplified by the
The Great Roundup of Spanish Romanies (Gitanos) in 1749. The Spanish monarchy a country-wide raid that led to separation of families and placement of all able-bodied men into forced labor camps.
Later in the 19th century, Romani immigration was forbidden on a racial basis in areas outside Europe, mostly in the English speaking world (in 1885 the United States outlawed the entry of the Roma) and also in some South American countries (in 1880
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
adopted a similar policy).
Holocaust
The persecution of the Romanies reached a peak during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in the
PorajmosThe Porajmos is a Romani term introduced by Romani scholar and activist Ian Hancock to describe attempts by the regime in Nazi Germany to exterminate most of the Romani people of Europe as part of the Holocaust.The phenomenon has been little studied and largely overshadowed by the Shoah The...
, the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis during the Holocaust. In 1935, the
Nuremberg lawsThe Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany which were introduced at the annual Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg. The laws classified people as German if all four of their grandparents were of "German or kindred blood", while people were classified as Jews if they descended from...
stripped the Romani people living in
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
of their citizenship, after which they were subjected to violence, imprisonment in concentration camps and later genocide in extermination camps. The policy was extended in areas occupied by the Nazis during the war, and it was also applied by their allies, notably the
Independent State of CroatiaThe Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany. The NDH was established on April 10, 1941 after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers...
,
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
and
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
.
Because no accurate pre-war census figures exist for the Roma, it is impossible to accurately assess the actual number of victims.
Ian HancockIan Hancock is a linguist, Romani scholar, and political advocate. He was born and raised in England, and is one of the main contributors in the field of Romani studies....
, director of the Program of Romani Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, proposes a figure of up to a million and a half, while an estimate of between 220,000 and 500,000 was made by the late Sybil Milton, formerly senior historian of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. In Central Europe, the extermination in the
Protectorate of Bohemia and MoraviaThe Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the majority ethnic-Czech protectorate which Nazi Germany established in the central parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia in what is today the Czech Republic...
was so thorough that the
Bohemian RomaniBohemian Romani or Bohemian Romany is a dialect of Romani formerly spoken by the Romanies of Bohemia, the western part of today's Czech Republic...
language became extinct.
Forced assimilation
In the
Habsburg MonarchyThe Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The capital was mainly Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when the capital was Prague...
under
Maria Theresia
(1740-1780), a series of decrees tried to force the Romanies to sedentarize, removed rights to horse and wagon ownership (1754), renamed them as "New Citizens" and forced Romani boys into military service if they had no trade (1761), forced them to register with the local authorities (1767), and prohibited marriage between Romanies (1773). Her successor
Josef IIJoseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
prohibited the wearing of traditional Romani clothing and the use of the Romani language, punishable by flogging.
In
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
, attempts to assimilate the Gitanos were under way as early as 1619, when Gitanos were forcibly sedentarized, the use of the Romani language was prohibited, Gitano men and women were sent to separate workhouses and their children sent to orphanages. Similar prohibitions took place in later in 1783 under
King Charles IIICharles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to his death in 1788.Eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, Princess Elisabeth of Parma, he became the Duke of Parma and Piacenza under the name of Charles I ; later on in 1734 while Duke of Parma he conquered...
, who prohibited the nomadic lifestyle, the use of the
Calo languageCaló or Spanish Romani is a dialect spoken by the Spanish Romanies, Gitanos or Zincarli originating from Spain: Caló blends native Romani vocabulary with Spanish grammar, as Spanish Romanies lost the full use of their ancestral language.Gitanos used Caló to communicate discreetly in their...
, Romani clothing, their trade in horses and other itinerant trades. Ultimately these measures failed, as the rest of the population rejected the integration of the Gitanos.
Other examples of forced assimilation include
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
, where a law was passed in 1896 permitting the state to remove children from their parents and place them in state institutions. This resulted in some 1,500 Romani children being taken from their parents in the 20th century.
Contemporary issues
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international secular non-governmental organisation which defines its mission as "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated." Founded in London in 1961, AI...
reports continued instances of Antizigan discrimination during the 2000s, particularly in
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
,
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
,
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
,
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
,
SloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north...
, and
KosovoKosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
. Romani are often confined to low-class ghettos, are subject to discrimination in jobs and schools, and are often subject to police brutality.
In Italy, the government recently declared that Italy's Romani population represented a national security risk and that swift action was required to address the
emergenza nomadi (
gypsy emergency) Specifically officials in the Italian government accused the Romanies of being responsible for rising crime rates in urban areas. Mario Marazziti, spokesperson of the Community of Sant'Egidio human rights organization said "There is no national emergency ... What is an emergency is that in the 21st century the life expectancy of a gypsy living in Italy is under 60 years of age."
Fictional representations
Many fictional depictions of the Romani in literature and art present Romanticized narratives of their supposed mystical powers of fortune telling, and their supposed irascible or passionate temper paired with an indomitable love of freedom and a habit of criminality.
Particularly notable are classics like
CarmenCarmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
by
Prosper MériméeProsper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...
and adapted by
Georges BizetGeorges Bizet was a French composer and pianist of the Romantic era. He is best known for the opera Carmen.-Biography:Bizet was born at 26 rue de la Tour d'Auvergne in the 9th arrondissement of Paris in 1838...
,
Victor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
's
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and
Miguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, often considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature and is regularly regarded among the best novels ever written. His work is considered among the most important in all...
'
La GitanillaLa Gitanilla may refer to:* The Bandits * La Gitanilla, a short story contained in Miguel de Cervantes' Novelas ejemplares ...
.
The Romani were also heavily romanticized in the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, a classic example being the 1975
Tabor ukhodit v NeboQueen of the Gypsies Queen of the Gypsies Queen of the Gypsies ' onMouseout='HidePop("14499")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Emir_Kusturica">Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica, OF Emir Kusturica, OF Emir Kusturica, OF (Serbian Cyrillic: Емир Кустурица; (born 24 November 1954 in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician with a string of internationally acclaimed features...
in his
Time of the GypsiesTime of the Gypsies is a 1988 Yugoslav film by Serbian director Emir Kusturica. Filmed in Romani, Time of the Gypsies tells the story of a young Romani man with magical powers who is tricked into engaging in petty crime...
(1988) and
Black Cat, White CatBlack Cat, White Cat is a Yugoslav Romantic comedy film directed by Emir Kusturica in 1998. It won the Silver Lion for Best Direction at the Venice Film Festival....
(1998).
In contemporary literature
The Romani ethnicity is often used for characters in contemporary fantasy literature. In such literature, the Romani are often portrayed as possessing archaic occult knowledge passed down through the ages. This frequent use of the ethnicity has given rise to Gypsy archetypes in popular contemporary literature. One example of such a use is the character Jilly Coppercorn in the seminal
urban fantasyUrban fantasy is a subset of contemporary fantasy, consisting of novels and stories with supernatural content, set in contemporary, real-world, urban settings—as opposed to 'traditional' fantasy set in wholly imaginary landscapes, even ones containing imaginary cities, or having most of their...
novel
Dreams Under Foot by
Charles de LintCharles de Lint is a Canadian fantasy author and Celtic folk musician.Along with writers like Terri Windling and John Crowley, De Lint popularized the genres of urban fantasy and mythic fiction which fall somewhere between classical fantasy literature, and mainstream fiction with a magical realist...
.
See also
- Antiziganism
Antiziganism or Anti-Romanyism is hostility, prejudice or racism directed at the Romani people, also known as Gypsies.The root zigan is the basis of the word for the Romani people in many European languages. In most of those languages, the pronunciation is similar to the Hungarian cigány...
- Cem Romengo
- Decade of Roma Inclusion
The Decade of Roma Inclusion is an initiative of twelve European countries to improve the socio-economic status and social inclusion of the Romani minority across the region...
- European Roma Rights Centre
The European Roma Rights Centre is an international public interest law organisation engaging in a range of activities aimed at combating anti-Romani racism and human rights abuse of Roma. The approach of the ERRC involves, in particular, strategic litigation, international advocacy, research and...
- Gypsy Lore Society
The Gypsy Lore Society was founded in Great Britain in 1888 to unite persons interested in the history and lore of Gypsies and rovers and to establish closer contacts among scholars studying aspects of such cultures. David MacRitchie was one of its founders and he worked with Francis Hindes Groome...
- International Romani Union
The International Romani Union is an organization active for the rights of the Romani people. Its seat is in Prague....
- King of the Gypsies
The title King of the Gypsies has been claimed or given over the centuries to many different people. It is both culturally and geographically specific. It may be inherited, acquired by acclamation or action, or simply claimed. The extent of the power associated with the title varied; it might be...
- List of Romani groups
- List of Romani people
- List of Romani settlements
- Nomadic peoples of Europe
In Europe the settled lifestyle has long been the norm, but some small nomadic communities exist or have existed recently.- Roma people :...
- R. v. Krymowski
R. v. Krymowski [2005] 1 S.C.R. 101 was a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on hate speech against the Roma people, also known as "Gypsies."-Background:...
- Timeline of Romani history
External links
Non-governmental organisations
Museums and libraries
- Museum of Roma Culture
The Museum of Roma Culture is an institution dedicated to the history and culture of the Roma . It is situated in Brno, Czech Republic.-History:...
in BrnoBrno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, located in the southeast of the country. It was founded in 1243, although the area had been settled since the 5th century. As of August 2009 the population is 404,887...
, Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe that is sometimes considered to be Eastern European. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague...
(in Czech)http://www.rommuz.cz/
- Specialized Library with Archive "Studii Romani" in Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city by population in the European Union, with 1.4 million people living in the Capital Municipality...
, BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
(Bulgarian, English)
- Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg
Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As of 2008, over 145,000 people live within the city's area. Heidelberg is a unitary authority...
, GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
(German, English)
- Ethnographic Museum in Tarnów
Tarnów is a city in southeastern Poland with 116,109 inhabitants .The city has been situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999, but from 1975 to 1998 it was the capital of the Tarnów Voivodeship. It is a major rail junction, located on the strategic east-west connection from Lviv to...
, PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Click "ROMA (CYGANIE)" on the menu at left. (Polish, English, Romani)
- Who we Were, Who we Are: Kosovo Roma Oral History Collection. The most comprehensive collection of information on Kosovo
Kosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
's Roma in existence. (English)