Danger of introductions

1. Danger of introductions • You generalize so much that you miss something important • You create stereotypes about the whole group

2. Myth about nomadism: • all Roma are NOT nomads in their “state of mind” as often claims literature. • Sedentary Roma sometime move more frequently than a majority because of temporal rents, discrimination and supportive family network • Nowadays they are often less mobile than the majority, have less choices • “myth of a nomad” as a tool to deny “domestic right”

3. Romani Society • Stronger kinship ties – important for: • socialization of children • Maintenance of the group • Economic support, etc. • Characteristics of kinship ties: • nuclear family vs extended family (more generations, aunts and uncles, cousins) • frequent patrilocality (wife that comes to live with a husband’s family)

4. Nuclear family

5. Extended family

6. Extended family - diagram

7. Neolocality

8. Patrilocality

9. Extended patrilocal family

10. Age distinctions – A) children • not protected from the “adult world” • included early to the “family economy“ • education is not so “direct” and systematic as in the majority • day is not as structured to the specific time sections • taught to decide collectively, to be loyal to the family and to share a responsibility for a whole family • Importance of solidarity

11. Result • upbringing produces an ideal member of its society • majority society promotes – independence, value of institutional education, individualism, individual responsibility, exact timing and competitiveness. • Acute conflict of norms in early age

12. B) Old age • The older person, the higher status • Someone who has an experience - gives advice • Family “historian”, oral folklore • is cared for by the family

13. Roma is a hierarchical society • Status • ascribed (prevails in traditional societies) • achieved (modern market societies) • Hierarchy • hierarchy between groups (group endogamy) • hierarchy in between the families • and hierarchy inside families

14. Hierarchy between the families • depends on profession, family history, wealth, honor or ritual cleanliness • Ritual cleanliness • family status (wealth, profession) • unclean objects and persons – dogs, cats, lower part of the women body, women after giving birth • rules of “good behavior” (eating, food preparation, laundering, bathing)

15. Hierarchy in practice • Where and what do I eat and drink • Whom do I visit • Where do I live

16. Hierarchy inside families • age • gender • strict definition of gender roles • man as a main breadwinner • good “family and household care” as the first responsibility of a good wife

17. Finding a partner • importance of the social status of her/his family (wealth, reputation) • alliance not of two individuals but two families • family control over the choice of a partner • young women as a virtue of a family (danger of shame) • women as a main subjects of taboos of cleanliness, dress code for women (long skirts and scarves of married women in some groups)

18. Young wife • the most inferior position • improvement after the birth of a first child • position improves with age, grown up children and menopause • Problem of non-Romani society • does not take into account these hierarchies and perceive Roma as a one group • result – failed housing projects • creation of ghettos, etc.

19. Means of living • influence social organization of each group (nomadism, semi-nomadism, sedentarisation) • strategies • specialization of groups (but only few of them allows to gain social prestige in non-Romani society – musicians) • “border” activities or means of living considered illegal by a majority (but sometimes source of prestige inside Romani group) • finding gaps in the market • adaptation – from horse to car trading

20. Language • “verbal society” • knowledge of different codes of communication (bilingualism, dialects of majority language) • language as a tool of socialization – disadvantaged children at school, knowledge of an ethnolect of majority language (specific mistakes) • misunderstandings – stemming from translations

21. Main divisions of the language • Romani in the original sense - spoken by the majority of Roma around the world if they still speak Romanes. Loan-words, but basically understandable. Look and listen at http://www.llc.manchester.ac.uk/Research/Projects/romani/ • II. Sinto-Manush dialects - loan-words and morphology from Germanic languages. Minimal comprehension with other groups. • III. Local dialects of other languages containing Romani words (Spanish gitanos, Great Britain and some regions in Rumania).

22. Beliefs – social regulators • ritual cleanliness • belief in God plus voluntary/involuntary adoption of local religions • social gatherings in Western Europe (Saintes Maries de la Mer in May) • various beliefs in the supernatural, in omens, curses and healing

23. Example: mule – dead people • (sg.m.mulo) • return because • they had unsettled accounts with someone • missing something in the next world • because s/he disapproves of the behaviour of her/his survivors • to warn a dear survivor of danger • Belief in mule - a social regulator. Offended people can come and haunt offenders when they die.

24. Some important events in a life-cycle • christening (boňa) – acceptance of the child from other world into the world of people • engagement (mangavipen) – boy’s family comes to ask for a girl. Union is confirmed with a family celebration and young people can live together • marriage (bijav) – not required, display of family social prestige, nowadays more frequent because of the pressure of the majority society • Rituals concerning dead – eg. three-day death watch (vartišagos) - to make peace between dead and living. Respect for dead in general.

25. Importance of a context • A) Modern society • Roma are living in a modern society; they are not an “exotic other” • similar themes as faced by each ethnic minority (voice, adaptation, assimilation, discrimination, language, conflict of norms and ideas) • most distinctive is a power problem (don’t have any state support) • B) Majority society • majority society was pretty similar until it adapted massively to the industrial and information society (kinship, patrilocality…) • Careful when assuming that some cultural trait “is from India” – compare it with local history first

26. C) Changes • weakening of the family and group control • changing gender roles • political involvement – re-invention of traditions (history, language) by elite and by researches

27. Our responsibility as researchers and policy makers • involve not only a Romani elite, but other Roma as well • inform in a most precise way and then help to make informed choices • Further info on Roma • http://romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/ • Anthropology:eg. Stewart, Michael 1997. The Time of the Gypsies. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. • Williams, Patrick 2003. Gypsy World : The Silence of the Living and the Voices of the Dead. Chicago, Chicago Press University, 104 p. • For those who read French - classics: Williams, Patrick, 1984. Marriage Tsigane: une cérémonie de fiancailles chez les Roms de Paris. Paris: L'Harmattan, Selaf • Piasere, Leonardo 1985. Mare Roma. Categories humaines et structure sociale. Une contribution à l’ethnologie tsigane. Paris: Etudes et Documents Balkaniques et Méditerranées. • Formoso, Bernard 1987. Tsiganes et sédentaires: La reproduction culturelle d’une société. Paris: L’Harmattan. • Reyniers, Alain … • Contact • Hana Synkova: hanaDOTsynkovaAloginDOTcz