I have been for years and still I am very interested , as many other research students ,even fascinated I can say, by the fact, that in our today globally very ordered world, seeming more and more lined to ditch rules and therefore quite alienated, there still remained, certain parts, almost untouched and seemingly incompatible to these generalyzed rules and norms : Rroma people being one very expressive example.
From this first point of view, nevertheless, Rroma people is obviously not unique. Rroma may be considered among other isolated populations quite astray, the same as the other do, away from the globalization trend. We may remember here the Indian tribes from Amazones, the Indigenous from Asia, Australia or Africa, all ,un-permeated by our civilization, and being so, only a few examples of keeping unaltered traditions.
But the major difference stands in the fact that the Rroma population , unlike the others mentioned before, were ,from the very beginning and still is living in the middle of and among the urban populations, mostly, be in either in Europe, Middle East or South America and more recently North America or Canada .And therefore,in spite and despite of this, Rroma remained reluctant to assimilation. One can say, it is a splash of colour in an omogenous coloured background.
The very first logical question that comes to mind is how to explain that after more than 1000 years of continuing oppression and rejection by the majority of the population, where Rroma went and tried to live, lack of support given by religion, without binder given to all of the same use of idiomatic language, and maintaining a culture without written tradition, oral tradition transmitted only through stories, Rroma people managed to survive in extremely difficult conditions, poverty limit.
It is worth to remark the fact that usually was not been analyzed that, at first, up to 15 th.century, all over Western Europe, Rroma were quite well received by the population. Rroma men were looking for money and food and their wives were working as fortune-tellers. One might wonder how much the increasing power of the church as an institution, at that time, helped to lead to the fact that everything different would be brought to a common denominator.It is a fact that up to the 15th and 16th centuries, as soon as the majority population, understood that Rroma were not really "pilgrims from Little Egypt", speaking a strange language,and being darker than the general population, in a very short time, people in those countries will turned against , triying to expel or even murder them. Nevertheless,over the years,the migrant Romani populations will have adopt the dominant religion of their country of residence, while preserving aspects of older belief systems and forms of worship. So, most Eastern European Rromanies are Roman Catholic, Orthodox Christian, or Muslim ,while in Western Europe and the United States ,Rromani are mostly Roman Catholic or Protestant,or even Pentecostal in Southern Spain .As for Turkey, Egypt, and the Balkans, the RRomanies are split into Christian and Muslim .
Therefore ,what is evident is the fact that Rroma were not united by shared beliefs.
They are not even bound by a common language .So, most Romanies speak one of several dialects of Romani, an Indo-Aryan language, and they hardly even not at all understand each other. They often speak the languages of the countries they live in,typically,incorporating loanwords and calques into Romani from these languages. Most of the Ciganos of Portugal, the Gitanos of Spain, the Romanichal of the UK, and Scandinavian Travellers have lost their knowledge of pure Romani,and respectively speak the mixed languages Caló, Angloromany, and Scandoromani.If not the language, nor either shared beliefs, paradoxically, what seems like just having kept Rroma people close was this very common experience of exclusion period from the majority, of hatred, of repression. Rromani experienced a very consistent and tenacious continuity to always be hated and hunted,a fact that incredibly continued into today's world so loving democracy.
But let remember a little history about shared experiencing being hated and hunted.
In 1497, The Holy Roman Empire, issued a decree where Rroma were considered as Turkish spies. In the following year, Rroma were expelled from this country and many Rroma left for Poland and for Lithuania
In 1471, Rroma were expelled from Switzerland and in 1516, the city of Bern issued a decree forbidding the Rroma to cross that canton.
The same , in France, as specified in the laws passed in 1504 and in 1539
In Spain, King Ferdinand and his wife Isabella decreed in 1499 that Rroma had either to stop to travel through Spain, or had to leave the country within 60 days.
In Portugal, similar laws were passed in 1526, 1538 and 1557, expelling the Rroma from Portugal specifying that Rroma born in the country should be sent to Portugal's African colonies.
In Holland, the same decrees were edicted in 1544, 1548, 1553 and 1560.
The Italian states expelled Rroma in 1524.
Some Rroma arrived in Scotland and England around 1505-1514 and the first anti Rrom law not hesitate to show,being passed in England in 1530 and stating that Rroma had to leave within 15 days or face arrest.
The first source mentioning the presence of Rroma in Sweden dates 1512, probably Rroma from England. Swedes called them Tattare, a name which has perdured up till now.
Rroma from England are know to have been in Denmark in 1505.
They were expelled from Sweden around 1540 and many of them left for Finland and Estonia, at that time under Swedish domination.
The Rroma in Eastern and Central Europe fared better than their Western brethren. There was a greater tolerance towards them and a greater need for their work. However, one has to single out Romania where Rroma were decreed to be slaves of the crown, the church or of anyone which afford to buy them . This slavery stopped only in 1848 in Transylvania and in Romania even later, in 1856. Even under these conditions, many of the Rroma continued their traditional activities and work such as copper and black-smiths, goldsmiths, some even travelling with bears or as musicians. Their music was greatly appreciated by the local gentry in both Hungary and Romania.
In Lithuania, the Rroma were even granted several privileges, among which, the right to chose their own leader. Many Rroma lived - and still do now - in the Balkan .Around the time of the Turkish invasion,the Turks segregated their subjects: each group, each confession lived in their own quarters, city or villages, had their own administration and paid taxes to the Turkish authorities,so,Christians and Jews had to pay higher taxes than Muslims. This prompted many Rroma to convert to Islam. Since reliable lists from the Turkish administration have survived, stating who paid which taxes, we can see more or less how many Rroma lived in the Balkan, how many were Christians or Muslims or what trades they were engaged in.So,in the 17 century, about 20% or the Rroma had converted to the Islam in the territories under Turkish domination. Most of the Rroma lived in villages or cities and were not travelling. Among them were black and copper smiths, jewellers and musicians, even some who worked for the Turkish army.
With the 16th c. and beginning of the 17th c. conditions became extremely bad for Rroma in Western Europe. They were submitted to a brutal and often bloody repression.
In 1572, the English created "An Act for Punishment of Vagabunds" which stated that any Rrom older than 14 years had to be whipped and sentenced to hard work. The Rroma were further branded with a burning iron. Rroma children between 5 and 14 years could be taken by anyone to work in their household.
In various forms this anti-Rroma laws stretched as far as into the XIX century
In France, similar laws were passed as early as 1666:so Rroma were to be sent, without judgement, to the galleys. Consequently the Rroma fled and spread into the large forests in the Vosges and Lorraine. Repression continued in France during the XVII century, several people had the recurring idea to deport the Rroma to French Guyana.
In the 16th and 17th c., in Holland a literal hunt for Rroma took place. in Dutch a "Heidenjachten". When Rroma fell into their hands, they were beaten and murdered like beasts. The Rroma were not allowed to cross the country's borders under penalty of whipping and being branded on the left shoulder with a soldering iron.
The same anti Rroma measures in the German states.So, in 1577, the city of Frankfurt forbade Rroma to come into the city with horses and carts as well as to do any kind of work, even so as to be able to feed their families. This act said that all Rroma were Turkish spies and that they had come to subvert the Christian Nations. In 1652, Georg I, the Ruler of Saxony, ordered the deportation of Rroma from his territories. In 1710, Prince Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Strelitz followed suit and decreed that all Rroma over 25 years had to be canned, branded on their shoulder with a burning iron and expelled in small groups. Should they return, they were to be hanged. Rroma women younger than 25 were to do menial work for the population, young Rroma were to be sentenced to forced labour and children under ten were to be given to "good Christians".
Towards the end of the XVIII century, a new approach of the Rroma "problem" was decided upon by the European leaders. The Austrian Imperatrice Maria Therezia was the first one, between 1758 and 1773, to decide to stop the Rroma travels and passed a decree, forcing the Rroma to live in but one place, to pay taxes and to work as farmhands,Rroma were not allbeing allowed to have horses or carts and had to ask for special authorisation to leave their village. Later on, Maria Therezia decided that Rroma would not be allowed to be called Gypsies and instead had to take the name of "new Hungarians" (ujmagyarok).Added to it, Rroma boys older than 16 were forced to serve in the army and passed laws by forbidding Rroma to wear their traditional garments, to speak their own language - Rromanes - and to work in their traditional trades,also Rroma were forbidden to marry among themselves and Rroma children older than 5 had to be given to non Rroma families, which were to raise them up. These laws were enforced in all Maria-Therezia's possessions, in Hungary, Slovakia and the Burgenland.Similar laws were inflicted upon Rroma in Spain: They also had to change their name to New Castillians (Nuevos Castillanos).
Anyway, one can see that all these imposing by force norms of behaviour did not have any positive consequences,only negative ones , being awfully developped and gaining apocalyptic proportions during Nazis World War War II
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