In the XIV-XV centuries. In Europe, a nomadic people appeared, known as the Gypsies, whose origin, way of life and language remained a mystery for a long time. Their ancestors did not leave behind a written history, so a variety of theories arose regarding the origin of the people. He seems doomed to eternal wandering and has his own special civilization.
Gypsies are scattered all over the world. They can be found on any continent, but nowhere do they mix with other peoples. Even the number of Roma could not always be determined in certain countries. They often tried to explain the origin of the gypsies with absurd theories, looking at their ancestry from German Jews , even mentioning the inhabitants of the legendary Atlantis.
The emergence of a mass of other theories was born from the lack of development complex issues ethnography and history of the largest national minority group in Europe, which were the Roma. The origin of the people was reduced to three main versions. The theory of Asian roots was supported by Henri de Spond, who associated the Gypsies with the medieval Attingan sect. Many scientists associated this people with the Central Asian tribe of the Siggins, mentioned by the ancient authors Strabo, Herodotus and others. The theory of Egyptian origin was one of the earliest, dating back to the 15th century. Moreover, the first gypsies who arrived in Europe themselves spread these legends. This version was supported by English scientists who claimed that the gypsies, on their way to Europe, visited the country of the pyramids, where they acquired their limitless knowledge and skills in the field of sleight of hand, fortune telling and astrology.
The theory of Indian origin arose in the 18th century. The basis for this version was the similarity of the Indian language with the language spoken by the Roma. The origin of the people according to this version is now almost generally accepted. The question of the location of the ancestors of the gypsies in India and the exact time of their exit from the country remains difficult.
The ambiguity of the origin of this people has always been intertwined with the definition of the very concept of “Gypsies”; the origin of this name was often considered not as an ethnic, but as a social phenomenon. In various sources, the name “gypsies” is applied to social groups of the population leading a wandering lifestyle, which are characterized by similar features and specific methods of earning a living, such as fortune telling, small crafts, songs and dances, begging and others.
Indeed, the gypsies, distributed mosaically throughout the world, are heterogeneous in their composition, and it is not always easy to understand how great the differences are between them. They are divided into a series ethnic groups, which distinguishes dialects and other local ethnocultural characteristics. Their traditional nomadism cannot be viewed as a kind of romantic wanderlust or chaotic aimless wanderings. The lifestyle of the people was based on economic reasons. It was necessary to constantly look for markets for the products of the camp artisans, a new audience for their performances.
Ethnocultural contacts of a certain group of gypsies with the surrounding population led to a number of borrowings. An interesting fact is that the gypsies were in no hurry to leave their inhabited territories, even when they found themselves in rather unfavorable conditions. It is known that in many countries they were subjected to severe persecution. And yet, even in the very epicenter of organized violence, there were still survivors. This is kale in Spain, sinti in Germany, travelers in England.
While in the Catholic West the appearance of the Gypsies led to the adoption of laws for their expulsion, in Byzantium no such law was passed. Craftsmen, metalworkers, and animal trainers were highly valued here.
In Russia, the emergence of new ethnic groups of Roma was associated with the expansion of territory. In 1783, according to the decree of Catherine II, the Gypsies of Russia were classified as peasants, and they were ordered to collect appropriate taxes and taxes. If they wished, they were also allowed to attribute themselves to classes other than the nobility. So, to end of the 19th century century, among the merchant and bourgeois classes there were many Russian gypsies.
In the 19th century in Russia there was a steady process of integration of the Roma, their settlement in permanent places, which was explained by the improvement financial well-being their families. Natural artistry, incorporating many cultures different countries, attracted genuine attention to this people. Russian romances performed by gypsies took on a different coloring. The genre of gypsy romance appeared, founded by Russian composers and poets who were passionate about this culture. A layer of professional artists began to appear.
Each of you has had to meet these people more than once in your life. In my childhood, post-war years, I had the opportunity to live for some time in one locality together with the Gypsies. Those who lived with us did not evoke any kind of rejection or disgust in me. On the contrary, I learned a lot from the old people. I remember I couldn’t manage to tame a young stallion in the herd, and no matter what I did, my grandfather, Gypsy, immediately took him, put on a bridle and brought the stallion to me. And the Gypsies taught me not only how to handle horses, I guess I was just lucky in life. There were other meetings, but I don’t even want to remember them.
Gypsy (Roma) is one of the largest ethnic minorities in Europe, a layer of the ethnic population of common Indian origin. A common self-name is Rum, Roma, although other ethnonyms are also used: Sinti, Manush (“people”), Kale. As a general name at a universal human level for all European gypsies, the designation Roma (English: Roms, Romanies) is used.
The origin of the name “Gypsies” as an exonym (that is, from the surrounding population) is conventionally traced back to the 11th century, around 1100 AD. George of Athos describes the events that took place in 1054. It was from this description that the opinion about the Egyptian origin of the Gypsies arose. This is how it always turns out: someone put out a beautiful story, and everyone liked it, but in reality, it turned out that everything was completely wrong.
The British traditionally called the Gypsies - Gypsies (from Egyptians - "Egyptians"), the Spaniards - Gitanos (also from Egiptanos - "Egyptians"), the French - Boh;miens ("Bohemians", "Czechs"), Gitans (distorted Spanish Gitanos) or Tsiganes (borrowing from Greek - ;;;;;;;;;, zinga;ni), Germans - Zigeuner, Italians - Zingari, Dutch - Zigeuners, Hungarians - Cig;ny or F;ra;k n;pe (“Pharaonic tribe "), Finns - mustalaiset ("black"), Kazakhs - sy;andar, Lezgins - karachiyar ("hypocrites, pretenders"); Basque - Ijitoak; Albanians - Jevgjit (“Egyptians”); Jews - ;;;;;; (tso'ani;m), from the name of the biblical province of Tsoan in Ancient Egypt; Persians - ;;;; (if;); Lithuanians - ;igonai; Bulgarians - Tsigani; Estonians - “mustlased” (from “Must” - black). Currently, there is an increasing spread in various languages receive ethnonyms from the self-name of a part of the gypsies, “Roma;”
Thus, in the names of the gypsy population that are “external” in origin, three predominate:
reflecting early ideas about them as immigrants from Egypt;
distorted versions of the Byzantine nickname “atsinganos” (meaning “fortune tellers, magicians”);
designations of "blackness" as distinctive feature appearances made in different languages (typically, one of the self-names of the gypsies is also translated as “black”)
Number of European Gypsies by different estimates is determined from 8 million to 10-12 million people.
In the former USSR, there were officially 175.3 thousand people (1970 census).
According to the 2010 census, about 220 thousand Roma live in Russia.
The most common self-name of the gypsies, which they brought from India, is “rum” or “roma” among European gypsies, “home” among the gypsies of the Middle East and Asia Minor. All these names go back to the Indo-Aryan “d’om” with the first cerebral sound. The cerebral sound, relatively speaking, is a cross between the sounds “r”, “d” and “l”. According to linguistic studies, the Roma of Europe and the Roma of Asia and the Caucasus were the three main "streams" of migrants from India. Under the name d'om various areas modern India today features low-caste groups. Despite the fact that modern houses in India are difficult to directly relate to the gypsies, their name has a lot to do with them. direct relation. The difficulty is to understand what the connection was in the past between the ancestors of the Gypsies and the Indian houses. The results of linguistic research conducted back in the 20s of the 20th century, and which are shared by modern scientists, show that the ancestors of the Gypsies lived in central regions India and several centuries before the exodus (approximately in the 3rd century BC) migrated to Northern Punjab.
In Indo-Aryan sources of late antiquity and early Middle Ages, which have not hitherto been considered as relevant to the genesis of the so-called “proto-romes” in India, there are many connecting questions. A number of data indicate the settlement in the central and northwestern regions of India of a population with the self-name d’om / d’omba starting from the 5th-4th centuries BC. e. These populations were originally tribal groups of common origin, possibly related to the Austroasiatics. Subsequently, with gradual development caste system, d'om / d'omba occupied the lower levels in the social hierarchy and began to be recognized as caste groups. At the same time, the integration of houses into the caste system occurred primarily in the central parts of India, and the northwestern regions remained a “tribal” zone for a very long time. This tribal character of the areas of origin was maintained by a constant connection with the Iranian nomadic tribes, whose resettlement in the period before the migration of the ancestors of the Gypsies from India took on a massive scale. These circumstances determined the nature of the culture of the peoples of the Indus Valley zone (including the ancestors of the Gypsies), a culture that for centuries retained its nomadic and semi-nomadic type. Also, the very ecology of Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat, the arid and infertile soils near the Indus River contributed to the development of a semi-pastoral, semi-trading mobile economic model for a number of local population groups. Some authors believe that during the period of exodus the ancestors of the Gypsies represented a socially structured ethnic population of common origin (rather than a number of separate castes), engaged in commercial transportation and trade in transport animals, and also, if necessary, as auxiliary occupations - a number of crafts and other services that formed part of everyday skills. The authors explain the cultural and anthropological difference between the gypsies and the modern houses of India (which have more pronounced non-Aryan features than the gypsies) by the indicated strong Aryan influence (in particular, in its Iranian modification), characteristic of the northwestern regions of India, where the ancestors of the gypsies lived before the exodus . This interpretation of the ethno-social origin of the Indian ancestors of the Roma is supported by a number of foreign and Russian researchers.
Crimean Gypsies, also Crimeans; we, Tatar Gypsies, Tatarche, Ayuji (Gypsies: kyrymitika Roma, Crimea) - a Gypsy sub-ethnic group that is part of the “large” Roma group. Formed in the Crimean Khanate. Nowadays lives in many countries former USSR, including in Russia. They speak their own dialect of the Romani language, with lexical borrowings from the Crimean Tatar and Russian languages.
In 1944, the Crimean gypsies, just like Crimean Tatars, were deported to Central Asia, which was due to the fact that most Crimeans were recorded as Tatars in Soviet passports. However, already in 1948-1949 they began to appear in Crimea again. Currently, most Crimeans live outside of Crimea - in Krasnodar region Russian Federation. Traditional occupations - small trade, performing music, various kinds of handicrafts, jewelry, blacksmithing, fortune telling, begging (still practiced. Gypsy orchestras traditionally served Tatar weddings. In our time, the music and dances of Russian Gypsies or modern ones) are also the most a common occupation of Crimean gypsies.
Sometimes Crimean Gypsies are also confused with Crimean Gurbets (a separate Turkish-speaking Gypsy subethnic group; they are recorded as Crimean Tatars in the census).
European geneticists analyzed the genome of the Roma and found that this people originated in northwestern India about 1.5 thousand years ago and entered Europe 900 years ago, according to an article published in the journal Current Biology.
“From a genetic point of view, all Gypsies are connected to each other by two things - they come from northwestern India and their ancestors intermarried with representatives of other peoples during migrations across Europe.
There are over 10 million people living in the European Union who identify themselves as Roma. Most of of these live in Central and Eastern European countries, including Romania and Hungary. The ancestors of the Roma did not leave behind written history, which is why their historical homeland and migration history remain unknown.
Scientists formed a group of 206 Roma volunteers living in different countries of Western and Eastern Europe, collected DNA samples and deciphered their genomes.
Then geneticists compared the genomes of the volunteers with each other and with the virtual DNA of five thousand Roma and other peoples living outside of Europe. This allowed them to identify about 800 thousand single-nucleotide polymorphisms - differences in one “letter”-nucleotide, which were later used as a “roulette” to estimate the genetic distance between peoples.
According to geneticists, the most likely homeland of the gypsies is the territory of the modern states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Kashmir in northwestern India. It is here that several isolated peoples live, such as the Meghawals in Gujarat and the Pandits in Kashmir, whose genome is most similar to gypsy DNA.I.E. the version about the Egyptian origin of this people is clearly erroneous.
According to scientists, shortly before entering Europe and some time after this event, the Roma experienced two sharp population declines. This is evidenced by a fairly small number of differences between the genomes of different representatives of this people.
By comparing the differences in the structure of the genomes of European and non-European gypsies, scientists found that the first representatives of this people reached the borders of Europe about 900 years ago. As geneticists suggest, the gypsies first penetrated the Balkans, and only then spread throughout Western Europe.
Back in the early 70s, I read in the magazine “Nature” that a large article was published about gypsies. And it was written there that the gypsies were one of the castes in India. They were expelled from India for their unacceptable behavior, which was the reason for their migration towards Europe. And at first they appeared in Spain, where they were met quite friendly, but quickly spoiled their attitude with theft and deception. The Gypsies did not leave written sources about themselves, but their adventures are recorded in European sources. Perhaps gentlemen of genetics only confirmed what has long been known. The article in the magazine was quite long.
The above remark adds to the delirium of Hitler's Nazism: * Hitler was 1/2 - 1/3 Jewish and hated Jews. * A fan of the “Aryan race”, but the Aryans are exclusively Indo-Iranians and a few Slavs, who genetically have nothing to do with the Germans. Actually, the Y-DNA haplogroup of the German-Scandinavian peoples I is closest to the Semitic haplogroup J. * It turns out that Hitler - Hated Gypsies and loved Indians, and these are the same people.
Before geneticists, their origin was unclear. For example, in Europe they are called Gipsy, from the word "Egypt", because they believed that they were the descendants of the ancient Egyptians - magicians, akin to those who came from ancient egypt Jews.
Another study of the last 10 years is linguistic, it has also been proven that the Gypsy language appeared about 1.5 thousand years ago in India. It was believed that these were the Dravidians - the indigenous pre-Aryan population of India, whom the Aryans, having captured India, made into a lower caste. But if they come from the north-west of India, it turns out that they are Aryans, and not Dravidians?...
The ancestors of the gypsies did not leave behind written history monuments, which is why their historical homeland and the history of migrations remain a mystery." And in human memory there is only the negative of vagabonds, thieves, murderers, and deceivers.
E;nishi (German Jenische, also a self-name), “nomadic”, “white gypsies” - ethnographic and social group of heterogeneous origin, living in Central and Western Europe, mainly in the region around the Rhine (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Belgium). Historically, the Yenish arose in the early 18th century as descendants of marginalized groups of populations (mostly German-speaking), although a number of researchers suggest that the Yenish may descend from a Germanized Celtic-speaking population. Only a small part of the Yenish switched to a nomadic lifestyle.
The Yenish speak a special Yenish jargon, grammatically close to the Swiss dialects of German.
Apart from Switzerland, the Yenish are not recognized as a national minority in any European country.
During the Second World War, the Nazis persecuted the Yenish along with the gypsies who were similar to them in their way of life. In modern Switzerland, the Yenish are considered by the authorities as one of the gypsy groups. The Swiss Yenish actively interact with the Sinti Roma, while in other European countries the Yenish actively separate themselves from the Roma.
(Principality of Moldova). Slavery in Romania, at that time a vassal state Ottoman Empire, was legally prohibited only in February 1856, but in fact it disappeared only in the mid-1860s. At the same time, along with slaves in the Romanian lands, there were Romanian serfs (known as carans, vecins, serfs); and in Transylvania - “Romanians”, Yobags, etc.) The basis of the local ruling class (boyars) were ethnic Romanians (in Wallachia and Moldova), in Transylvania - ethnic Hungarians.
Story
Despite all the difficulties of statistical accounting, as well as socio-political contradictions in the country, Romania is the largest and most famous region of Roma culture in the world. This circumstance is not accidental. Gypsies settled in medieval Romanian lands in unusually large numbers. They were undoubtedly attracted here by the great tolerance of the Romanesque population, which had survived here since antiquity. Indeed, in comparison with the Vlachs, who were also partly engaged in nomadic cattle breeding, later peoples who settled in the Balkans were much less tolerant of the nomadic lifestyle of the gypsies, their language and culture. Romanian Roma currently number at least two million. The first gypsies entered Romanian lands in the 12th century from the south. Starting from the 13th century, the gypsies found themselves in the position of slaves of local Romanian and Hungarian boyars. It was then that their gradual enslavement by the local Slavic-Roman elite began in a very peculiar form, reminiscent of slavery in Brazil. First written mention about slaves of gypsy nationality in Romania appeared on October 3, 1385. IN different time also put forward hypotheses that the gypsies were supplied to Romania by the Mongols or Turks, who brought them from Asia. After Romania became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, the country became part of the Mediterranean slave trade with the Maghreb countries.
Gypsy classes
The following professional classes of Roma have formed in Romania:
kalderashi (literally “copper craftsman”),
Lautars ("musicians"),
boyashi or lingurars (“spoon holders”)
ursars (“bugbears”),
fierars (“blacksmiths”), as well as “horsesmen”.
From the very beginning of the history of slavery in Romania, many slaves, as in Roman Dacia, worked in salt and ore mines. Gypsy women who belonged to the boyars were servants, often concubines. Official marriages between Romanians and Gypsies were not encouraged, but illegitimate children from such unions filled the streets of Romanian cities, exacerbating the problem of child neglect, which continues to this day. This problem was acute in Brazil and other Latin American countries, for a long time who cultivated the institution of plazagage.
After the abolition of slavery in the Danube principalities, at least 250 thousand Roma, or about 10% of the population of Wallachia, received freedom. In Russian Bessarabia, the 1858 census also counted 11,074 Gypsy slaves. The liberation of the Roma did not improve their economic situation. As in Brazil, freed slaves did not receive land, which meant they were forced to join the ranks of the urban poor or modify their field of activity. For example, the Fierars combined horseshoeing with horse stealing.
Roma are one of the largest ethnic groups in the world without their own state. They can be found in any country in Europe, the CIS, and America, and their number is about 8-10 million people. How did it happen that the gypsies began to lead a nomadic lifestyle and settled in many countries of the world, while their closest relatives continue to live in their homeland?
According to geneticists, the ancestors of modern gypsies left India around the 6th-10th centuries and moved to Persia (the territory of modern Iran). According to one version, 1000 people were given by the Padishah of India as a gift to the Shah of Persia. According to historical information, these were jewelers and musicians, and the donation of representatives of valuable professions was common for that time. Having lived there for about 400 years, the gypsies headed west and soon found themselves in Byzantium.
On the territory of Byzantium, they adopted Christianity and lived along with other peoples, being full members of society. According to written sources, the gypsies were famous blacksmiths. In addition, they were engaged in the manufacture of horse harnesses, breeding horses, and also trained animals and gave performances.
But after the fall of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century, the gypsies, in search of work and food, left their inhabited places and moved to the north and west of Europe. In Europe itself there were quite difficult times and the settlers were not very happy. The situation was complicated by the fact that the first gypsies who arrived in new countries were, as a rule, not the most best representatives gypsy society. Unencumbered by family and housekeeping, seekers of an easy life, they engaged in theft, fraud and begging. This led to the fact that the gypsies gained a reputation as vagabonds and scammers, and it became increasingly difficult for them to find work and become part of European society. In search of a better life, gypsies from Spain and Portugal began to move to Latin America.
Thanks to their difficult history and constant wanderings, the gypsies found themselves in genetic and linguistic isolation from the closest speakers of their language - the Indians. The Romani language belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of Indian languages. The language itself has several dialects, formed in different regions of compact residence of Roma. Besides native language Roma often speak the language of the country in which they live.
According to statistics, greatest number Gypsies live in the USA, where there are about 1 million of them. More than 500 thousand Roma live in Brazil, Spain and Romania, and about 200 thousand representatives of this people are registered in Russia. Today, April 8, is considered Gypsy Day and, despite the fact that this people does not have their own state, they have their own flag, in the center of which there is a symbolic wagon wheel.
More than 12 million Roma live in many countries around the world. There is no way to calculate their exact number, because... many of them are not registered in general civil censuses. Many gypsies themselves do not recognize their true national origin due to economic and social reasons.
Gypsies are a multifaceted and diverse people, containing a number of subethnic groups. It is a nation scattered throughout the world, whose representatives belong to different religious denominations and even speak different languages.
Gypsies are a special ethnic minority, distinguished from others by at least, gypsy blood and gypsy language. This people originated on the Indian Peninsula more than a thousand years ago. No one knows exactly why the first gypsies began their long nomadic journey from India to Europe and beyond. Despite centuries of persecution and oppression, they have spread throughout the world.
The Romani language consists of many surprisingly different dialects, which are united by the fact that they are all derivatives of Sanskrit, have almost the same grammar and many related words.
Like every nation, the Roma have their own scale of values. The main gypsy values, in order of importance, are: Family, Professional success, Religion.
A reverent attitude towards such a value as family is expressed in love for children, respect for older family members, recognition of family interests above personal ones, and in many other ways that differ slightly among different Roma peoples.
Professional success, regardless of the chosen profession, is also a very important value. There are two ways to demonstrate it: wealth, prosperity (after all, income directly depends on professional success; the better you know your business, the higher it is) and fame. Fame is all the more valuable because the approval of society is very important for a gypsy, which has always contributed to successful integration into non-gypsy society, given the normal attitude of society towards gypsies.
Religion is more important for a gypsy than non-gypsies usually think and tell. The attitude of the gypsies to faith was revealed during the years of persecution of religion Soviet power. The gypsies who rejected God could be counted on one hand, while the rest of the country's population was actively atheizing. Now this gap in faith between Gypsies and Gadje (the traditional name for non-Gypsies, also of professional origin and comes from the word “peasant”, “farmer”) is decreasing.
The uniqueness of the Roma lies in the fact that the Roma are a deliberately non-territorial nation. We are united not by our country of residence, but by our romanipe - the gypsy spirit. Romanistan is not a place, but people.
There have been several great waves of migration in Romani history. The first exodus from India occurred approximately 1000 years ago. Some scholars suggest that there were several successive groups that left India. The second great wave, known as ARESAJIPE, occurred in the 14th century. in the direction from Asia to Europe, from the southwest. The third wave - from Europe to America in the 19th and early 20th centuries after the abolition of Gypsy slavery in Europe in 1856-1864. There is now talk of the next great wave of migration, following the fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe.
The Gypsy language is of Indo-Aryan origin. It has many spoken dialects. Its ancestors are the ancient languages Punjabi or Hindi. Spoken Romani is varied, but all dialects contain a few common words used by all Romani people. Based on linguistic analysis of dialects, Roma are divided into three groups. This:
- DOMARI living in the Middle East. In their language, the word “gypsy” sounds like “house”.
- LOMARI living in Central Europe. In their language, “gypsy” means “crowbar”.
- ROMANI, inhabiting Eastern and Western Europe. In their dialect, “gypsy” means “rum”. There is no single common written language used by all Roma. However, currently the Linguistic Commission of the International Gypsy Union is working to standardize the language, its written and oral norms.
Gypsies are perhaps one of the most incomprehensible and mythologized peoples on our planet, and this has been the case for many centuries. There are rumors around the world that when gypsies come to a city, they seduce men and women and then steal everything in sight, including children. There are also many myths about cunning and mysterious gypsy fortune tellers and gypsy camps. In any case, even if we put all myths and misconceptions aside, the Roma remain one of the most interesting ethnic groups in history.
1. Where did they come from?
The origins of the Gypsies are shrouded in mystery. At times it seemed that they appeared on the planet in some mysterious way. This in itself may have created a sense of fear among Europeans and contributed to the atmosphere of mystery surrounding the Gypsies. Modern scholars suggest that the Gypsies originally migrated en masse from India in the fifth century.
This theory suggests that their flight was linked to the spread of Islam, which the Roma were desperate to avoid in order to protect their religious freedom. This theory states that the Gypsies migrated from India to Anatolia and further to Europe, where they split into three separate branches: the Domari, the Lomavren, and the Gypsies themselves. Another theory suggests that there were as many as three separate migrations over several centuries.
2. Nomadic lifestyle of gypsies
Many stereotypes have long been formed around the gypsies. Who doesn’t know the phrase “gypsy soul” (which is used in relation to freedom-loving people). According to these stereotypes, gypsies prefer to live, as they say, not in the “mainstream” and avoid social norms to be able to lead a nomadic life, replete with fun and dancing. The truth is much darker.
For many centuries, Roma were often forcibly expelled from the countries in which they lived. Such forced evictions continue to this day. Many historians have suggested that the real reason The nomadic lifestyle of the gypsies is very simple: survival.
3. Gypsies have no homeland
Gypsies are people without a specific citizenship. Most countries refuse to grant them citizenship, even if they were born in that country. Centuries of persecution and their closed community have led to the fact that the Roma simply have no homeland. In 2000, the Roma were officially declared a non-territorial nation. This lack of citizenship makes the Roma legally "invisible".
Although they are not subject to the laws of any country, they cannot access education, healthcare and other social services. Moreover, Roma cannot even obtain passports, making their travel very difficult or impossible.
4. Gypsy persecution.
It's worth starting with the fact that the Gypsies were actually enslaved people in Europe, especially in the 14th - 19th centuries. They were exchanged and sold as goods, and they were considered "subhumans." In the 1700s, Empress Maria Theresa of the Austro-Hungarian Empire passed a law that outlawed Gypsies. This was done to force the Roma to integrate into society.
Similar laws were passed in Spain, and many European countries banned Roma from entering their territory. The Nazi regime also persecuted and exterminated Roma by the tens of thousands. Even today the gypsies are persecuted.
5. Nobody knows how many gypsies there are in the world
Nobody knows how many gypsies live around the world today. Due to the discrimination that Roma often face, many of them do not publicly register or identify themselves as Roma. In addition, given their “legal invisibility”, the birth of children without documents and frequent moves, many Roma are listed as missing.
Also problematic is that Roma are not provided social services, which would help to create a clearer picture regarding their number. However, The New York Times estimates the number of Roma people worldwide at 11 million, but this figure is often disputed.
6. Gypsies are an offensive word
For many people, the term "gypsy" means nomad and is not considered a racial slur. But for the “Roma” themselves (or “Romals” - the self-name of the Gypsies) this word has ominous overtones. For example, according to the Oxford Dictionary English word"gypped" (derived from "gypsie" - gypsy) means a criminal act.
Roma, often called gypsies, were considered losers and thieves, a word that was burned into their skin during the Nazi regime. Like many other racial slurs, the word "gypsy" has been used for centuries to oppress the Roma people.
7. Future, inexpensive...
There are many myths surrounding gypsies. One of these myths is that gypsies have their own magic, which has been passed down for centuries from generation to generation. The myth is associated with tarot cards, crystal balls and fortune tellers' tents, as well as other stereotypes. The literature is replete with references to the gypsy language and the magical arts of this people.
In addition, there are many films that show gypsy curses. Even in art, there are many paintings that describe Roma as mystical and magical people. However, many scientists believe that all this magic is fiction, resulting from the fact that people simply did not know anything about the gypsies.
8. Lack of formal religion
In European folklore it is often stated that the Roma made a temple out of cream cheese. Presumably, they ate it during a period of severe famine, so they were left without an official religion. Generally, Gypsies join the church that is most widespread in the country in which they live. However, there are many traditional Romani beliefs. Some scholars believe that there are many connections between Roma beliefs and Hinduism.
9. Modesty
Although gypsy weddings are often accompanied by mass festivities and luxurious attire, casual wear Gypsies reflect one of their main life principles - modesty. Gypsy dancing is most often associated with women's belly dancing. However, many Romani women have never performed what is considered today belly dancing.
Instead, they perform traditional dances that use only their bellies for movement, not their thighs, as moving the hips is considered immodest. Additionally, the long, flowing skirts typically worn by gypsy women serve to cover their legs, as exposing their legs is also considered immodest.
10. The Gypsy contribution to world culture is enormous
From the very beginning of their existence, the Gypsies were closely associated with singing, dancing and acting. They carried this tradition throughout the centuries and significantly influenced world art. Many gypsies assimilated into different cultures, influencing them. Many singers, actors, artists, etc. had gypsy roots.
Mysterious peoples lived on our planet in the past. For example, such as .
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