Gypsies of Europe and
America : history of a culture
By Fr.
Renato Rosso
The
History of Gypsy People
One
might ask what is the reason for these pages on the gypsies ? Here you have the
main reason for it. If any one wants to meet a gypsy, he must first of all
accept him or her as a human being and not as someone ‘less human’ or ‘savage’,
for the simple reason that he leaves in a circumstance or setting different than
ours. A gypsy whom one may encounter is just an individual who belongs to a
particular ethnic group, which has its own distinct history, ways, customs and
habits.
Undoubtedly
these few pages will not be exhaustive enough to provide a complete knowledge of
this particular people. It is my earnest hope that these pages serve as a source
of light and discovery to remove our ignorance which, I think, has been the
cause of great fear, violence, and repression. Further more, I hope that it may
serve as an incentive to approach a gypsy who may extend his hand to wish us.
A
millennium of History
The
history of the gypsies as it is known to this time is a rather brief one tracing
back to a 1000 years, having for its beginning their appearance in western
Europe. Hardly anything or very little is known of incidents that led to their
migration. It is not even known whether they were nomads or settlers.
The
history of the gypsies is the history of a group of people that never fought any
battle, neither aspired for any power, from the very origin suffered from wars
fought by others and been persecuted.
Its
subdivision into small autonomous groups, its extraordinary capacity to adopt
themselves to an ambient of life, coupled with great courage, perseverance and a
profound consciousness of their identity are all factors that helped them to
survive. In every gypsy one can find a deep seated trace of the sufferings he or
she has undergone. Though today many people no longer consider the gypsies as
rogues, unconsciously they are victimised as rouges by people.
Who are
the Gypsies?
The
gypsies are a nomadic people that set out from the north of India and took the
road to the West about a thousand years ago. Though numerically insignificant
and a vanishing group, they reached almost all the countries of Europe and,
today, their presence is noticed in all the continents.
The
gypsies are nomads but not all the nomads are gypsies. There are people in
Africa, America, Asia and Northern Europe who migrate in search of pastures, for
hunting and fishing. When we use the term 'Gypsy' we refer to a well defined
group, a clearly distinct ethnic group, having its own language, with a
particular culture and who are normally nomads.
In
Europe, the gypsies and Lapoes of the Fenoscandia represent two important groups
from the anthropological and cultural point of view, just as we have in Brazil
the Indians, the group of Negroes and those properly called gypsies.
It
is well known that over the centuries the gypsies who came in contact with
different peoples went through a process of "mimetizacão". They also
came to the point of establishing blood relations with settlers. As a matter of
fact, marriages between gypsies and non gypsies have not been uncommon. The very
language of the gypsies was subject to a lot interpolation with local influences
specially in places where they stayed for longer periods of time. And the same
can be said about other traits of life and customs.
In
spite of all these setbacks, we must admit that the gypsies preserved their
language carefully as a cultural patrimony which is common and unifying. It is
rare for a stranger to have the possibility of learning their language. Even
just a superficial attempt to examine the interaction between the gypsy world
and that of the settlers makes this abundantly clear. The gypsies maintain their
universal consciousness; the language with all its difficulties arising our of
the use of a wide variety of dialects, has just one root which is Indian; their
ways and customs maintain its specific characteristics, not merely those
characteristics which are connected with nomadic people.
It
is not possible to speak of gypsies as one homogeneous group.
Nor can we consider them to exhibit a homogeneous culture and way of
life. This is particularly true if one wants to speak of their way of life and
traditions. Those who migrate to different places or have their camp in
different places and under various
situations have also differences in their way of life, language and culture. The
North of Russia and the South of Spain, for example, have a different social
organization, a different climate, a distinct culture; therefore the gypsies who
migrated to those regions over a century ago, have
remarkable differences among themselves even though they belong to the same
stock of nomads.
It
is quite common to hear to speak about Italian, Slovenian, Argentinean or
Brazilian gypsies. To avoid ambiguity, I must make it clear that such a
denomination is merely a matter of convenience. For example, the Brazilian or
Argentinean gypsies can recognize very well gypsies who share the same
linguistic heritage just as the Portuguese or the Spanish as well as the
regional dialects. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that they have
lived for a long time in those regions. The gypsies in these areas registered
themselves in the municipalities through which they passed by or lived in, and a
great majority of them received citizenship of the country. The same thing can
be said of the gypsies living in other countries as well.
To
describe the gypsies, it is necessary to divide them into two big groups: The
ROM and the SINTOS. Since this distinction is mainly based on language, we can
say that the ROM, considered to be originating from the "VLAX Language",
have come under the strong influence of Romanian and Hungarian languages, and
preserve in a better way many oriental traits. Sometime after they fled India,
they stayed for long periods of time in countries like Romania, Hungary, Russia
and Yugoslavia. The ROM can further be divided into other big groups, like for
example, the LOVARA (Horse Merchants), the CALDERASHAS (Brazing and Gold Gliders)
and the CURARA.
At
times places of ROM are named after the country where they resided for centuries,
after their first emigration from India as: Romengria, Serbaja, Russurja,
Unghertike, Macvaja, Moldovais, Horahane, etc. There is also a group of SINTOS,
considered to be coming from the "non VLAX Language". They are a group
which represents the western gypsies, who from the very first centuries of
emigration proceeded towards the West, and settled in the Southern parts of
Europe. Here are some of the names: Sintos Gackane (from Germany), Estrakaria (from
Austria), Valstike (from the Latin countries), Lalleri (from Bosnia), Tinkors (from
Scotland and Ireland), Tattaren (from Scandinavia).
There
is a detail which is useful to distinguish better the groups, and that is the
dress of the women: The woman of the ROM group (Eastern) generally wear long and
very colorful dresses. On the contrary, the women of the westernized group are
more discreet in the way they dress. They look poorer, and adopt themselves to
the local ways of dressing.
Origin
and spread in Europe
Until
the 19th century no one, still less the gypsies themselves, knew anything about
the origin of this particular group of people. The Sintos and the Rom spoke a
language that was neither German or Latin origin; the colour of their skin was
tanned; their customs and habits were rather strange; they continued to move
from one place to another, which gave rise to many questions in the minds of the
people without any clear answers emerging.
All
this contributed to a deep seated mistrust of the gypsy population by the well
settled population. This gave rise to a lot of strange conjectures full of myths
about their origin.
It
was only towards the end of the 18th century that the German historian Bryants
discovered a close link between Indian languages and that of gypsies.
Since
the gypsies do not have a written tradition, it became extremely difficult to
undertake a research on the different stages of the origin and history of this
nomadic people. The records available so far do not go beyond a thousand years.
As for the history of the gypsies predating this period, and particularly
regarding their existence in the Indian society, there is hardly anything known.
Some historians and scholars tend to believe that before the year 1000 A.D.,
prior to their migration to the west, they had been a non-nomadic group, but
were compelled to migrate due to wars or natural calamities.
There
are others who opine that the gypsies had been a nomadic people for centuries
and it was only at the beginning of the second millennium of the Christian era
that one group began to move towards Europe. Besides these in India even now
there are many groups of gypsies (Lambadies), very much akin to the gypsies of
Europe. Even though they are separated from each other by a gap of thousand
years of history there are many close resemblances between the gypsies of the
West and those of India.
The
presence of gypsies in the island of Crete around the year 1322 is a proven fact,
and a little later their presence is found in the islands of the Mediterranean
sea such as Chipre, Rodes, Negroponte and Corfu.
Special
mention may be made of the presence of the gypsies in the coastlands of
Peloponeso, where hundreds of huts formed the dwelling place of gypsy families
near the Gjoe Mount. The place was known as "Small Egypt". This
explains why the gypsies on their arrival in western Europe would talk of their
country as "Small Egypt". For a long time it was thought that the
gypsies were Egyptians.
From
the 10th to the 13th century there is a gradual formation of two groups; one
group went up to western Asia, Arabia, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Egypt. The
other group reached the Byzantine Empire, where they remained for a long time.
They mingled with the local population and absorbed a great deal of the local
vocabulary. In this way they came to be known as Atsiganos (which may have later
on came to be called Ciganos), a name that in olden days meant a sect of
heretics notorious for witchcraft and fortune‑telling. From the common
belief that they came from Egypt, in England these nomadic people came to be
called Gypsies.
In
the Byzantine regions the gypsies came in contact with the Christian world near
Modon. They came to know many Christian pilgrims who were on their way to the
Holy Land. They were mostly pilgrims from Italy, France and Germany. They came
to understand that the pilgrim is a privileged traveler. Since then, they
thought of moving towards the West, as if to be pilgrims returning to Europe.
Thus around the year 1416, a few groups started leaving Byzantine territories in
search of better countries and better fortune. They got themselves into groups
of tens or even a few hundreds of persons:men, women and children lead by
chieftains known as Voivoda. The Slovanian and Hungarian states in those days
had Counts while Germanic countries as well as Western European nations had
Dukes who received them.
Besides
posing themselves as pilgrims from the Holy Land, they also carried letters of
protection from Emperor Sigismund, King of Bohemia and Hungary. In many of the
cities, the gypsy leaders who posed themselves as pilgrims were well received by
various municipalities with gifts in kind and cash. They were given bread and
vine, meat and fish, oats and coal.
But
after sometime, in spite of the letters of protection the gypsies found it
difficult to convince people that, they were pilgrims. Therefore they approached
the Pope to get support from him. In 1422 a group of gypsies went to Rome with
this objective.
One
of the first noteworthy presences of gypsies in Italy is seen in 18th July 1422
in Bologna, and twenty days later in Forlì. In the year 1423 around three
thousand gypsies moved from Romania to Hungary. In the year 1427, a group of
gypsies arrived in England and soon after in Scotland. In the year 1433, a group
of them is found in Bavaria, Bohemia and West of Austria. In the year 1477, a
big group of them entered Spain. In the year 1500, they arrived in Russia.
The
presence of the Gypsies in Brazil
In
Brazil and Latin America the gypsies entered along with the first European
migrants. In Spain the gypsies arrived a little earlier than 1450. Hardly had
they entered Spain, they started creating problems for the Catholic sovereign
rulers. They were not only a group of strangers but a group that could not be
understood and above all a group that could not be controlled. They kept on
moving from place to place. For the average people the gypsies were a group as
strange as the Jews and the Muslims.
The
Kings of Spain tried to get the gypsies to be settled down. In order to solve
this problem and at the same time obtain the desired results there was an
ordinance issued to expel all those who would not reside permanently in one
particular place. But in reality this group of people did not get settled down,
nor did they abandon Spain, in spite of being severely persecuted.
The
Jews were expelled from Spain on 31st March 1492. The Muslims who did not
embrace Christianity were expelled on 14th February 1502. The gypsies were
willing to go to America but were simply forbidden to do so. The Muslims would
have to return to Africa. The gypsies and the Jews searched for another place to
reside. A few groups of gypsies finding unbearable the pressure brought about on
them by Spain, went over to Portugal. From there eventually they migrated to
Brazil.
Some
of the gypsies came to Brazil as ordinary merchants, some others as people
condemned for some crime or the other. They made use of the exile in order to
escape from the penalty. There were some who enlisted themselves voluntarily to
come to Brazil, and therefore they could not be rightly counted as slaves.
In
Brazil, the first mention made of a gypsy is found in an order issued by King
Sebastian, dated 1575. This order was a commutation into exile of a certain
gypsy who was condemned to the gallows. It was the case of Joan Torres who came
on board the ship with his wife and children. It is not true that this was the
first gypsy to arrive in Brazil but he is the first one about whom there is an
official record. Within a few years, some gypsy families from Brazil went over
to the territories of Spanish domain. King Philip II on knowing about it,
ordered that they be immediately imprisoned and deported to Spain. There they
would be judged and further expelled. At the same time the King of Spain forbad
by an express order any further migration of gypsies to America.
In
short all these prohibition orders ended up with the gypsies remaining in
Spanish controlled America and in Brazil, as well as in Spain and in
Portugal.
Finally
in the 17th century many Gypsies arrived Brazil getting themselves settled on
the North Eastern part of the country. According to a witness of the time, the
gypsies did not like very much to come closer to the Indians (natives). They
preferred to remain close to the sea shore, as they were engaged in the horse
trade as well as slave trade.
In
the year 1710 the gypsies fell victims to a fierce persecution. When those in
authority came to understood that the gypsies were a homogeneous group with a
language, culture and customs of their own, and thus, they could be a threat and
danger to the country and customs. Therefore in 1710 there was a law in Brazil
forbidding the gypsies to teach to their children their own languages or even
following the Gypsy customs.
In
the same century among the reforms of Marquis de Pombalinas
referring to Brazil, there was a plan to
As
for the Spaniards, now wondering how to get rid of the gypsies from Spain in the
18th century, the period of Enlightenment, they came up with the idea of sending
the gypsies to colonize America and not just anybody. The reason for such a plan
being to avoid the spiritual and material damage caused by the gypsies in these
kingdoms. Thus, the Council of Castela proposed to the king to use some of them
as laborers after an‑apprenticeship of two years; that they should be sent
to the remotest areas of America and that there should be there among them
honest and loyal Spaniards. Fortunately, the Minister for American Affairs, Jose
de Galvez, in 1777 rejected this order and the plan of the Council of Castela
did not come through. It was only twenty years later, around the year 1797, that
many gypsies were sent to Amazones.
Many
of the Gypsy families that came, got themselves settled and adjusted themselves
to the new situation. Many of them excelled in dramatics, music, arts and crafts
and commerce. In the last century at the marriage of King Pedro with the Queen
Leopoldina strong signs of cultural assimilation could be seen when groups of
gypsies were invited to take part in the festivities in the royal court.
Personally,
I am in agreement with the idea of Manuel Diegues Junior who opined that the
gypsies have made a great contribution in the way they ethnically related
themselves within the different ethnic groups in Brazil.
Nomadic
life
The
nomadic way of life of the Gypsies is a fact which is mysterious and typical of
this people. It is something that cannot be fully explained by so much
scientific research already undertaken. First of all the nomadic way of life is
so ancient that we could trace it back not only to that part of the East which
is India, but also to that period of history which is not known to us. This
could explain why nomadic way of life is so deeply rooted in the gypsies. As a
matter of fact, many groups of the Oriental nomadic groups got settled while the
gypsies still continue to stick to their nomadic life. There is also the fact
that the gypsies are on the look out for ways of livelihood that are in keeping
with nomadic life. These very means of survival to which the Gypsy is attracted
keeps him pushing ahead on his journey. For example a gypsy woman will not look
for a super market for her shopping for the simple reason that this type of
marketing is not in keeping with the nomadic life which is so much rooted in the
soul of a nomad. One could, for example, think of a traveling suitcase with
handkerchiefs, necklaces, socks, or some other small things but useful and easy
to carry from place to place. When the gypsy woman has sold all the materials,
she finds it easy to go on with her journey to another place. There is no
thought of coming to this same village for quite some time where the materials
sold will last in that place for some time. She goes in for the type of work
that compels her to move from place to place.
The
art of circus is another typical example. You cannot continue in the same place
with the same show for a long time, but you have to shift from one locality to
another.
These
are the reasons why the gypsies who are traveling merchants and circus artists
are compelled by the nature of their work to stick to a nomadic life. They are
invited to different places with their circus shows and the type of goods they
sell.
This
is how they developed a culture, a history, a psychology, a sociology, a
politics, which is typical of a gypsy on the move. It goes to the extent of
becoming a way of life. Even when circumstances are favorable for a long stay,
the gypsy will change place at the first opportunity. The Gyspy does not
radically change to a settled life.
When
the gypsies live in houses for a long time, they don't have for their neighbors
those who live next door, but the gypsies who may be living quite far away from
them.
One
should keep in mind that in the city there are ghettos of people who come
together to defend some of their petty interests, be it for some business, or to
keep up their supremacy or the good reputation they enjoy. Therefore it is
necessary to imagine the big metropolis which is made up of R.C.C. jungles quite
distant from each other.
In
Brazil very often there arises a comparison between the gypsies and the native
Indians since both these groups have an origin with marked characteristics that
distinguish them from each other ethnically as well as culturally.
It
is sad to say that the native Indians are pushed far into the backward areas by
the Whites. With the pretext of reservation the Whites want to occupy the better
land that is the property of the native Indians. This is also being done by the
Whites in order to occupy places with gold mines or precious stones. The Whites
in keeping with their greed for comfortable life know how to select places for
their habitation.
The
gypsies on the contrary came away from real jungles and started living in R.C.C.
jungles of which our cities are made of. They got used to living a life that is
less in harmony with nature, and to breath an air that is more polluted and to
live according to a more sophisticated socio‑political relationship. Such
a situation enables them to survive in a milieu which is not natural for them.
As
a conclusion to the reflection on nomadic life we can say that moving from place
to place is very important for the gypsies, especially in relation to their
future survival.
We
can say that being nomadic is one of the essential features for the survival of
the gypsies. However nomadism is not the only characteristic that defines them.
We
cannot say that the gypsies are only ‑ those who are traveling and others
are only descendents of gypsies. The administrative and political departments
define a gypsy only on the basis of the fact that one is a nomad and other is
not. The distinction is drawn between those who live in tents and those who live
in houses. This kind of distinction is not only inaccurate but arbitrary.
A
gypsy is not just one who fits into a list of certain characteristics. On the
contrary a gypsy is one who belongs to an ethnic group with a peculiar
historical background. He has a spiritual and cultural heritage peculiar to the
group and he is closely attached to a particular socio‑political group.
The
Family
The
family is the centre of the Gyspy life. Everything moves around this institution
which is the basic unit of the socio‑political, economical and moral life
of the gypsies. It is through the family that the new members of the gypsy
family are educated. In the midst of so much instability and conflicting
situations, it is in the family that the gypsy finds his or her security and
protection. The great defense of the family comes from that certain mistrust the
gypsy family has about the conduct and behavior of the settled inhabitants of
the place. The mistrust has prevented a lot of benefits that would derive from a
healthy interaction. On the other hand this attitude has been helpful in keeping
intact the gypsy culture and traditions.
At
a close study of the gypsy family we see the preservation of material goods,
cultural heritage and certain knowledge of which the gypsies are proud of.
Rosa
Janush, a gypsy woman writes: “The rule
in vogue in a gypsy camp about the distribution is the only authentic form of
democracy that I have so far known.
The
profits obtained by the various members who work together on a certain task are
equally distributed among all the members, irrespective of the quantity and
quality of work put in by individual members. In the same way if any of those
who are working on a particular job falls sick, that person gets the same share
of profit as the rest in the group engaged in that particular work. This type of
democratic dynamics is lived out by the gypsy family. It is not only the goods
that are enjoyed in common but they put up also collectively with the conflicts
that arise.”
Any
problem that arises even at the individual or personal level, it is always taken
as the problem of the family since one is so closely linked with his family for
everything. As a rule a Gypsy does not known how to live outside his family.
Apart from the capital sentence, the next greatest punishment that the
"Kris" (Gypsy Tribunal) can pass on a culprit is to exclude him from
his family even if it is for some time only. During this particular period of
exclusion from the family, the Gypsy goes through such a cruel situation as if
he has been in jail, because it is forbidden to him to camp with his family
group which is the vital centre of his life that is so much depending on this
social factor.
One
cannot understand a Gypsy type of life except in relation to the settled type of
life that tries to absorb it. On the one side it is rejected, since it continues
to be a strange body, on the other hand it tries to stimulate an ever deeper
coercion for coexistence so as to be able to survive.
Something
that struck me from the days of my childhood is the following fact: when the
gypsies passed by at home they would sound an "alarm" as if to get
ready for a battle. The reason for this was the fear that a "strange
body" which could cause some conflicts was approaching.
On
knowing that they were approaching we would close the door and pretend as if we
were not at home. On the contrary in my home the people always received them
well (out of fear). We would also buy something from them and even give alms to
those who were poor and begged for alms. I would go at the back door of our
house to warn I my uncles and aunts: "gypsies". Soon my uncles and
aunts would alert my grandma: "There come the gypsies;",
and she soon ran to the garden to collect some vegetables and be on the
alert. My aunt and my mother at once would go to feed the chickens (in those
days the chickens were an easy prey to gypsies). Thus there was a gathering in
groups of chickens, ducks, turkeys. All of them, each of these groups of birds
making hell of a noise in their own way, served as an alarm to the neighbors
warning them "gypsies are around". The gypsies who were given the
appearance, that they were most welcome, knew it very well that they actually
are not at all
welcome. In five minutes it was the end of it all for me, for my mother, for my
aunt, for my uncle and granny and there would be a sigh of relief: "They
are gone" But for the gypsies it all began ten minutes after that in the
house of our neighbor. And after twenty minutes with another house and after
half an hour still another, and so on. Several times I have been thinking of how
one would feel to be pointed at with a finger and being received with an alarm.
By this and so many other examples one can very well understand how the Gypsies
are being marginalized and segregated. All this leads them to be closed up into
their own family circle.
Thus
the world outside the family circle becomes one of the great factors that
strongly attaches the gypsy to his family circle, and in it he or she finds
security. The family group becomes very much united and a source and means of
Gypsy pedagogy for every individual of the group. This family group to which the
individual is ever readily attached becomes the new pedagogical law depending on
the changes that occur in their outside world of the people who are not nomadic.
Thus the gypsy group manages to keep authentic an autonomous way of life. The
very pedagogy of the group calls for a stronger unity and gives security. A
gypsy family has its own identity which is a result of this triple dimension in
the life of a gypsy sticking up to each other, security and pedagogy of its own.
Such a pattern of life continues to preserve a link with the past and builds up,
the future. It is all geared to form an unmistakable identity of a gypsy family.
The gypsies would not like that the vital elements of this reality, typical of a
gypsy family, should be lost.
What
is the kind of situation which the gypsy family is facing today? First of all
the lack of understanding on the part of the settled people about the nomadic
life. It is quite evident that the outskirts of the cities are reserved, for the
Gypsies.
They
are very poorly maintained and beset with lots of dangers. The difficulty that
the gypsies encounter in finding other suitable areas force them to stop for
long periods of time in the same place and in this way many become permanent
settlers. Mixed marriages with non‑gypsy women brought into the gypsy
camps exposes the group to certain exigencies. The media of social communication,
especially the television brings a real "bombarding" to the gypsy
camps. Such a brain‑washing by the media is an invitation for all to have
the same interests with the aim in view towards consumption of the same products.
The mass media is tending towards leveling all who are exposed to it, so that
all may think in the same way or better still, that people, may not think at all
but simply just follow the media. The young and the adolescents are exposed to
the media, to ideas, like the fashions, which may in themselves appear to be
very superficial. But all these prove to be devises that bring about a profound
change in the mentality of those who are exposed to the ravages caused by the
media.
And,
if on the whole there was a tendency to delegate to the parents the choice of
their marriage partners for the adolescents, now they assume themselves this
responsibility and what was once a marriage among adolescents is becoming more
and more a marriage between the young who are "more and more adults".
The
recent economic constraints put a limit to the birth rate, and thus, the group
is weakened day by day. Having to live more and more in the suburbs, the gypsies
are coming in contact with realities that are more violent. Suddenly they notice
in their camps, besides, alcoholism and drug abuse, also organized gangs of
bandits, assaults, crimes etc.
We
cannot ignore the fact that the, gypsies always had the opportunity to project
their image to the extent of occupying prominent position in various fields of
human endeavors ‑ in the field of politics, economics, science and also in
religion. This situation brought about lots of benefits to them. This is a
positive aspect but it is not something new. They can meet with the exigencies
of modern civilization (frequent a college or university, have medical
assistance, dentistry, social work and take up a profession).
The
gypsy society always responded to the expectations of integral human development.
When there not was yet any association to promote the development of the gypsies,
they had already occupied noteworthy positions in the various spheres of human
society. In Brazil there have been poets of national fame; there have been among
them many judges and lawyers, especially in Rio do Janeiro. There have been also
politicians, one of them became the President of the Republic. Many have been
also among the clergy, priests and bishops. The gypsies themselves are
responsible for their proficiency in many other spheres of human activity.
Even
though the present situation may give the impression that the gypsy society is
not going to last long, yet we should not be like Predari who, some hundred
years ago, believed that the Gypsy culture was coming to an end and advised
those interested in learning about the Gypsy family to do it soon. As a matter
of fact now there are many more gypsies than in those days, and let us hope that
this is so hundred years hence.
Renato
Rosso
Bhopal,
October 25, 1996