Gypsies

Gypsies: from mythology to history

At the beginning of XXI century, entire groups of "travelers" seem to have reached the end of their journey centuries, when seen stranded with their caravans on wasteland mired in the outer suburbs of the cities, in terms survivor precarious. Almost settled, these nomads have lost much of their traditions without having integrated into mainstream society. Always rejected, they continue to travel the world, rolling across borders, such as thistles blown by the wind. Some people stop too long as if the wheel of the trailer - which is their symbol - was broken. Those are stranded between two cultures and have more or less lost their identity.

            Gypsies, a people somewhat mysterious and disturbing, that we got images of Epinal, or a whole mythology, the lack of knowledge. In the vision we have of Gypsies, which is part of the myth and the reality?

            "Bohemians" and for centuries Gypsies roam the roads of Western Europe. But at the turn of the year 2000 they were joined by thousands of others, arrived from Central Europe when the borders were opened after the fall of communist regimes. Victims of racist persecution, they took the road to the west, where the living conditions are better anyway, and they were arrested in the cities of Germany and France, seeking political asylum. They have become sedentary, sometimes squatting or renting homes to several families. Offenders or social event. Fear of deportation. As in Germany, where the government had returned by tens of thousands, giving them a little money and negotiating their return to their country of origin.

Even once acquired the right to asylum, the Gypsies are facing heavy problems of identity. Own no land, no state authority or administration which refer, not to break their isolation media, no school to maintain their language and culture. Not the ability or willingness to integrate into the society in which they live. Under these conditions, how to stay Rom?

             This pessimistic image of Gypsies and immigrants settled in urban areas is far removed from the romantic cliché that had them, even in the middle of the twentieth century. They are still called Bohemians. Trailers pulled by horses, camp away from the villages, men who offered rempailler chairs and in the evening, played the violin, women in colorful dresses that sold wicker baskets and said good adventure. Some were circus acts with a bear and monkeys. They were fascinated and a little frightened. The legend of the "kidnappers" was not entirely forgotten. More was founded reputation of "chicken thieves".

 In the nineteenth century, they inspire romantic writers

             These strange travelers walking in road dust and haze of the sun sowed on their way to building material myths and inspire romantic writers. Shakespeare already staged Gypsy characters (as Caliban). But it is especially in the nineteenth century that the character of Gypsy, and more of the gypsy spread in European literature.

             In "Quentin Durward" by Walter Scott (1823), the mysterious Hayraddin present the typical features of Gypsy: gifts of divination, lack of religious belief, cunning, taste of independence. In "Notre-Dame de Paris" by Victor Hugo (1831), the pure and seductive dancer Esmeralda is accused of witchcraft. The "Carmen" by Prosper Merimee (1845), popularized by Bizet's opera is inspired by Zemfira "Gypsies" of Pushkin (1832): this is the theme of impossible love between a gypsy and a fickle Christian passionate and possessive.

            In Greece, the first European country to have received the Roma Papadiamantis in a long historical novel, "The Little Gypsy" (1884), depicts Aima, a daughter of Prince Christian raised by gypsies, and for that, hit by injustice, and he mentions superstitions and racist ideas about Greek Gypsies "Her face is black, it's because she never washes ... Is it true that they eat the flesh human ... they dig for robbing the dead ... They are people without religion, they are magic, they sleep together. "

            Drossinis in "The herb of love" (1888), depicts the contemptuous hostility and unfairness of the Greeks for Gypsies, in a tragic story of passionate love, but not between a hypocrite and selfish young shepherd, who afraid of being mocked, excommunicated, accursed, and Zefira soft, sensual dancer and a little witch.

            Kostis Palamas, in the long historico-philosophical poem "The twelve words of the Gypsy" (1902), idealizes the Gypsy in fact the symbol of freedom poet, an artist Dionysian Nietzschean hero, an example for the Greeks called to renew the Byzantine civilization obsolete.

            Serbian Boris Stankovic staged in the theatrical drama "Koshtana", located in southern Serbia in 1900, a character Bohemian, Koshtana that by seducing the son of a prominent Orthodox exacerbates passions and precipitated the decline of a family whose social and economic status was broken by the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Between the mythical figure of the literary character and the sad reality of the immigrant sedentary, which places the Gypsy today in its human dimension and authentic? Actually, we should know what we are talking about Gypsy. Not only identify the subgroup to which it belongs: Rom as the Balkans and Central Europe, Manush prevalent in much of Western Europe, North Italy through the Germanic countries, Gypsies " Andalusian "and" Catalan "in the Iberian countries and the south of France. But also determine the one hand their level of acculturation (which depends on the nature and intensity of trade between the two cultural groups, that of the dominant society and that of the dominated theirs) and secondly their degree of assimilation (which eventually lose all their ethnic identity).

 The pilgrimage of Saintes-Maries de la Mer

             In this closed world to "gadjé" are rare events which display their authentic traditions. One manifestation still followed in France is undoubtedly the annual pilgrimage that brings together a large number of clans in Provence Saintes-Maries de la Mer

             24 and 25 May, the outskirts of the city - the largest city in France, in the Rhone delta - is a huge colorful camp, where the caravans towed by American cars or vans have replaced the horse-drawn caravans of yesteryear . A picturesque and friendly gathering where clans meet and fraternize, do business, seal matrimonial alliances. This is a great fair among the huts, stalls, whirlwinds dresses, guitar chords and violin, strong smells and bright colors, rumor haggling and sales pitches. Evening, circles form around the fire for feasts, dances, concerts of flamenco.

In the afternoon of the 24th, after church, the shrine of Sara fell from the upper chapel of the church with cables and ahanements. In the voice of gladness, the pilgrims jostle and make jumps to be first to touch the precious relic. Women press against the statue and raise children; contact ensures health, luck, fertility. Men vie for the honor of carrying the shrine. Escorted by cowboys on horseback, they carry in procession into the sea statue of Sara coated with a coat of blue silk. The strongest part in a prayer vigil in the crypt superheated by the heat and smoky candles burn that women bringing offerings and votive offerings, cheap jewelry, handkerchiefs, photos, toys, shoes children.

The next day after Mass, a new procession is formed, with the clergy, the herdsmen (herders Camargue), musicians, Arles in traditional costume. This time it is the holy Maries that one leads a procession to the shore the sound of fifes and drums Provence, relaying Gypsy violins and accordions. The boat containing the symbolic statues of saints and pitch seems to sail above the crowd before going on the water, where, they say, it came out, men enter into knee-deep water, as for an ancient rite of undulation. and homecoming. Then after making him touch the sea, the boat back, we go to church and puts the shrines of saints and Sara in place.

What is the part of the history and the legend in this cult so popular and Sara Maries, which the Catholic clergy willingly while doubting the authenticity of the patron saint of Gypsies?

             Mary Jacobe, sister of the Virgin Mary, who had married the brother of Joseph, Mary Salome, wife of Zebedee and mother of the apostles Jacques the Greater and John the Evangelist, Sara, their Egyptian servant, Mary Magdalene, the repentant sinner - that should withdraw the Sainte Baume, Maximin, future bishop of Aix Sidonius healed the blind, raised Lazarus and his two sisters Martha and Mary, all had to leave Palestine by the sea where they were persecuted by the Jews. Their boat ran aground around the year 40 to the mouth of the Rhone. While their accomplices evangelized Provence, the two Maries remained in Camargue with their servant. Two skeletons, René of Anjou, Count of Provence, was exhumed in 1448, is believed to be the remains of saints.

             And Sara? She was never canonized and not in the Vatican hagiography. Gypsies still venerate her as a saint and consider this "dark-skinned Egyptian" as a woman of their race. Probably the Gypsies themselves have they introduced this worship in the fifteenth century, by associating the Marys to give authenticity.

Sara could be Christianized avatar of a Hindu goddess whose worship they had kept in their exodus. It is in fact the dreaded goddess Kali-Black, the wife of Shiva, represented by its malefic aspect, black face and bloodthirsty. Unless Sara recalls another Hindu goddess, Saraswati, wife of Brahma, often depicted mounted on a swan (who would become Sara's boat).

It is anyway a syncretism. As for the pagan deity Dana and St. Anne in Britain. Another curious survival Hindu: Gypsies gave the cross Romani trushul name is the name of the trident - trishul - Hindi. The trident of Shiva symbolic attribute can appear as the divine Trinity Christian. It is Krishna who seems to have given the idea of ​​a single god almighty, they call Devel, and they invoke in their healing rituals and death.

 Legends referring to biblical times

 Gypsies peddle legends referring to biblical times. They say well that this time the world was ruled by Sinpetra (St. Peter, likened to God the Father), surrounded by four companions, Sunto Yacchof (Jacques), Sunto Abraham, Sunto Moischel (Michel or Moses?) And Sunto Cretchuno (Christmas), future sponsor of the Child Jesus. The Pharavono (Pharaoh) made war, and he was engulfed with his people in the Red Sea through the intervention of Sinpetra. The few survivors are Egyptian Gypsies. Having lost everything - goods, writing, consideration - they began to wander through the world. Some have accompanied Mary and Jesus in their flight into Egypt.

Gypsies say they are cursed because they were charged with forging the nails for the crucifixion. Yet they took pity and prevent thinking, they fought three of the four nails driven, which is why Christ had both feet fixed by a single nail.

 It is arriving in Europe - staying in the Greece and Serbia Byzantine Orthodox Christianity they discovered. For them, Christ, they call Baro Devel, the Great God, merges with God the Father.

As the Devil, they call Beng - a word that means frog curiously in Hindi (which is close to the Hungarian "bekah" frog). Why the frog, not the goat like medieval Catholics or the wolf as the Lapps? In fact, the Orthodox icons they saw St. George or St. Michael slaying the devil in the form of a dragon, and it is this strange beast they took to a frog!

So, while maintaining and disguising Eastern beliefs of Hindu deities, Gypsies adopted Christianity (apart from a minority of Muslims in the eastern Balkans). They are Orthodox in the Balkans, Catholics in the rest of Europe, but in recent decades they have joined many Christian sects - Pentecostals, Baptists, Evangelicals, in the wake of Protestantism.

Evangelical sects have an increasing influence in the most advanced and richest. Great liturgical gatherings are organized by pastors Gypsy capitals for "cults", featuring superstitious rituals, imposition of hands, incantations punctuated by hallelujahs. These pastors to active proselytism, are often as "preachers" unlettered, unable to read the bible they brandish, but with a strong authority that competes with the old ones.

Leaving the Catholic Church, which belongs to the world of "gadjé" Gypsies do not practice more than one Christian sacrament, baptism by immersion often.

 Their history: a discovery of linguistics

         Where did these nomads, apparently without roots, driven by the wind like thistles Baragan, where did they come from, we wondered?

         Gypsies by their name (in England), Gitanos (for "Egiptanos, Spain), or Yifti in Greek, they refer to themselves as originating in Egypt.

           The name "Gypsy" seems to come from medieval Greek "Athingani" untouchable pariahs. In France, it has long been called the Romany Gypsies and mainly (Boumians en Provence), which is the term they are less wrong in Central Europe. But the "Bohemian" or the Balkans was a step in their long exodus began centuries ago. Indian origin is no longer little doubt. Their physical appearance, the remains of beliefs, especially their language bear the mark of India.

             Under a variety of names there is a Gypsy people, divided into three sub-groups, the Roma who live mainly in the Balkans, Manush, many in the Germanic countries and northern Europe as well as Italy, and Gypsies, or "Andalusian" or "Catalan", inhabiting Iberia and southern France.

             The name by which the Romanies often meant is their language Romani Tchel "the Romani people". Call themselves Roma, or more precisely Kale Roma "black men" because that is how the Europeans saw them. Roma seems to be the name of the Hindu god Rama thus "the Peul Ram". They also give the name of Manouches. Manush means "man" in Sanskrit and Hindi (word also akin to the English "man" Gypsies belonging to the Indo-European family). The name of a branch Sinti Gypsy, which evokes the Indus or Sindh.

             The vocabulary and syntax of the Romani language are typical neo-Hindu. Seen as the closest phonetic Punjabi and Rajasthani dialects as Hindi. Thus, Romany kher home matches Punjabi Hindi and kar ghar. Romani phral brother and sister have a P phen-like pen and pai Punjabi Hindi as a bhai (Sanskrit bhrat-) and bahin. Khil butter and milk are close thud Hindi ghee and UDHR, iv snow is related to both Hima (laya) and French winter. Cacuminal the D and R retroflex, typical Hindi consonants, R and L correspond Romani: parno white, evil friend, per stomach (opposite pandu, mitra, pet). Many words are almost identical in Romani and India (pi-drinking, ga-go-khel dancing ruk tree, lon-salt, five panj, etc.)..

            The female is everywhere-I, the plural E. Conjugations are similar: Romani kerov me I do Mê kerdaé Punjabi, Hindi Mê karta hu.

             The phrase is built the same way:

Romani ja kon dik tshalavelo vudar o / Hindi dja, kaun dekh tchalaya dvar kb. (Will see who is knocking at the door);

Romani phraleski baro grai / hindi ka bara bhai Ghora (the big brother of the horse).

As chronic and Persian (Hamza of Isfahan including the tenth century) called them Zott - known for their musical talents - it was thought closer to the name of Jat which means a sub-caste in India. But some think they were rather of a higher caste, that of Kshatriyas (warriors), which lie below the Brahmins (priests).

             These warriors fought for riders princes Rajputs in Rajasthan. They had at their disposal a caste of blacksmiths, Lohars, who manufactured and maintained weapons, ferraient and cared for horses, which gave them an honorable status, they took care of arms warriors until the day when the head Akbar defeated the Rajputs at the fort of Chittorgarh in 1568, therefore, they fabricated more than agricultural and domestic utensils.

It remains today a group of Rajasthan Lohars Gaduliya, nomads who live and crammed their belongings in an ox cart, acacia wood decorated, covered with mats, called "Gaduliya." They wear bracelets and earrings as Gypsies in Europe. They are still blacksmiths. The anvil remains a sacred object, which can be loaned or used by women (which, however, wield the hammer): it is said to be the abode of the goddess of fortune, Lakshmi. But fortune seems to escape, and their identity is at risk.

Northern India in the Americas: an exodus of several centuries

            We do not know why any one ethnic group took the route of the Exodus. Catastrophic flooding of the Indus have caused the first emigration in the eighth century. But it is especially the invasion of Muslims in India around the year 1000 which had to be decisive.

               In 1026, during one of his many raids, warlord Mohamed Persian and Muslim Ghazni invaded the territory of Jat in Punjab and abuses have been pushed into exile ancestors Gypsies. It is thought that the name "Ghazni" became synonymous with enemy alien, is the origin of "Gadje", which means non-Gypsies. (However, there is another possible origin of Gadje: grhiya, derived from Sanskrit grha where Gypsy and Hindi ghar kher house, so those vibent in a house).

                In 1192 Terain in the Afghan cavalry leader Mohamed Ghori defeated the Confederate army of Rajputs controlled by Prithviraj Chauhan. Part of noble warriors, "son of Rama", riders, and the clans of blacksmiths Lohars attached to the service of their weapons, then left to the west. These smiths are the ancestors of the Roma experts in iron work and trade in horses. They piled their belongings and family on these carts, similar to "Gaduliya" Lohars of Rajasthan and is the first trailer. Progressing very slowly, with stops during the rainy seasons and snow, emigrants passed through Persia (where the Persian poet Ferdousi reported the arrival of 10,000 Louri, popular Indian musicians at the court of the Sassanid king Bahram IV) and the Caucasus - South Ossetia and Armenia - as evidenced by loan words in the vocabulary, especially vordon, Ossetian term designating the trailer, the "verdine" as they say in France. They crossed the Bosporus in the thirteenth or early fourteenth century.

                 In 1322, two monks of Crete, Simon Hughes and Simeonis Enlightened, people noticed "the race of Ham", living in caves or tents, Arabian style and watching the Greek rite. A Modon, port Morea, we noticed these foreigners, blacksmiths and "black as Ethiopians."

                Gypsies stayed long in Greece and neighboring Orthodox countries adopting Christian practices. There in 1348 in the presence of Serbia "Cingarije" farriers, paying tribute horseshoes per year. In 1378, there are "Cygani" butchers Zagreb. In 1378, the Venetian governor of Nafplion (Peloponnese) confirms the "Acingani" privileges. Until the nineteenth century, Gypsies blacksmiths, boilermakers and farmers were exempt from tax in respect of Venice.

                Romani language borrowed many Greek words: drom road papin duck kokalo bone efta seven saranda forty kurko Sunday parastivin Friday Nais thank you, Klidi key Amoni anvil among others. The expression Latcho drom Bon voyage reflects their itinerary: the first word is Indian (Hindi latcho equivalent to accha good), the second Greek.

                Wars between Christian and Ottoman armies made their uncomfortable and prompted many clans from elsewhere.

                 In 1417 they were seen arriving in Germany, France (Alsace and Macon) in 1418-19, Italy in 1422. In Germany, the Emperor Sigismund, as King of Bohemia, in 1418 gave them letters of protection. Bohemians their name probably goes back to that time. Some letters had German imperial worthless in France or the Netherlands. They claimed to come from a distant land, "Little Egypt", where the Saracens had forced to abandon the Christian religion, and they would have started to do penance. To prove this, a group led by a "Duke of Little Egypt", boasted of having obtained in 1422 in Rome letters of protection of Pope Martin V, whose authenticity is doubtful. Perhaps it is this group which is reported in Alsace in 1418 and Paris. Each group recognized the authority of a chief named Duke (or count) of Little Egypt. "This" Little Egypt "was probably Greece, then in Ottoman Empire Muslim. Gypsies For some who have made a detour to Alexandria monuments of ancient Egyptian or Greek might seem to belong to the same civilization.

                  In 1476, Hungary, Matthias Corvinus allowed people Hermannstadt, the current Sibiu, use the Egyptians settled in the suburbs where they work iron (German slang word Zaster dough, dough, is borrowed from the Romany saster iron , scrap). Gypsies touched Scandinavia in the sixteenth century.

The largest ethnic minority in Europe

                  The arrival of the first Gypsies never seen Paris, caused, in August 1427, a lot of curiosity and some scandals witchcraft and pilferage. A chronicle describes these "black men", "women darkest and ugliest one can see, black hair like the tail of a horse ... For an old suit" flaussaie "(coarse cloth) attached shoulder by a rope link, and for any old machine bodice ... There was this company witches watching people's hands and said what had happened or would happen ... and interpersonal skills or magic art of skill, they emptied the purses of people "(Journal of a Bourgeois of Paris - 1427). So that the bishop was excommunicated and hunt. Group leaders offered their services as mercenaries for the French princes Through this patronage lordly nobles were patrons of Gypsy children baptized. Hence the surnames Manouche of France, as the Lafleur: In 1610, Captain John Flower, "Egyptian French," struck a balance for his services to Catholic camp.

                 France, Gypsies passed in Spain. The first mention is made in January 1425 when King Alfonso V of Aragon granted safe-conducts to "Egyptians" (Gitanos) Gypsy groups who claimed to want to make the pilgrimage to Saint Jacques de Compostela. But their independent spirit, their conduct disconcerting, their wanderings, their exoticism, their magic tricks were not slow to give rise to suspicion, hostility and bad reputation.

    In Spain as in France, Gypsies were persecuted soon about everything, flogged or mutilated ears, expelled, condemned to the galleys or slavery or banishment for real harm (theft) and imaginary (child abduction) for insubordination, vagrancy, witchcraft, or "cannibalism".

    These are Queen Isabella and Ferdinand of Aragon, the first of édictèrent laws with terrible punishments and expulsions, which also struck the Jews. In the sixteenth century Iberian Gypsies were deported to the American colonies (In France, too, Gypsies were persecuted for their appearance and manners.

    Under Louis XIV, condemned to the galleys could escape if they agreed to go into exile to "the islands of America" ​​and to colonize Louisiana).

             Some groups in some countries were protected by those who benefited from their talents: musicians for the lords of France in the seventeenth century, the jockeys in the south of France, the cod fishermen and fish market "Cascarots" on the Basque coast in the nineteenth century.

    Piedmontese Sinti (Bouglione Coco) have distinguished themselves in the circus. It is mainly for their quality of musicians that Gypsies have been appreciated in the past two centuries. In the Danube countries, bands are formed by the Romanian Lautari playing panpipes and cobza (mandolin strings to 9) and the Hungarian playing the violin and cimbalom.

    More recently, Gypsy jazz appropriated, after Django Reinhardt (1910-1953). But this is probably the flamenco gypsies which is kind of the most popular music.

                 Spanish Gypsies have lived well with the Moors in solidarity with marginalized. What could believe that they had arrived in North Africa with them. But the "Egyptians" Spain have arrived in the Balkans. Their dialect - the calo-whose use is almost lost to the Castilian or Catalan - contains no Arabic word but keeps a few words South Slavic proving their stay in Serbia ulicha street trupo body cralli King ( Serbian, ulica, trup, Kralj).

                The decision of the King of Spain to collect the "Gitanos" in ghettos is causing the concentration of certain communities, especially the blacksmiths inhabiting caves of Sacromonte in Granada. At the end of the eighteenth century, King Carlos III revoked the cruel laws of the Catholic Kings.

    Flamenco is expressed in broad daylight. Referring to the time when Flanders was Spanish flamenco from a cult of the mother goddess (Debla, Hindi "devi"), Earth, both cradle and grave human . Spontaneous expression linked to emotions, singing is accompanied by dancing, which includes elements of Hindu dance and Muslim influences. A dance characterized by the arched body, playing hands, zapatadas (shots heels), castanets, guitar accompaniment and vocals. Fierce and desperate music that expresses centuries of distress and sadness, sublimation of suffering, pride as a response to humiliation. "These songs are the memory of what we experienced: they give a taste of blood in his mouth," explained one day old gypsy singers. Flamenco inspired composers such as Manuel de Falla (the ballet "Love witch"), Granados, Albeniz and gypsy dancers like Maya and Carmen Cortes.

                 Like all nomadic Gypsies have stopped traveling often persecuted and despised, sometimes persecuted. In the twentieth century as the fifteenth and sixteenth, even more cruelly. The genocide of the Gypsies, like the Jews, was planned by Nazi Germany. Ignoring that they belong to the Aryan race. Throughout Central Europe, they were deported en masse, sterilized, used as guinea pigs or exterminated in concentration camps close to half a million have died. Their plight has moved less than Jews.

       Within a few centuries, Gypsies have spread in all countries of the continent, they are the largest ethnic minority in Europe. Despite the diversity of clans, they all have a common heritage that shapes their identity. Gypsies of Spain acquired a very special personality that distinguish them from very old traditions of Roma and Manush.

 Gypsies: Living in modern society

Gypsies have a particular conception of the notions of space and time. Nomads, they have no territorial attachment, not the idea of ​​ownership and care of states and borders that because law enforcement officials continue to monitor and impede their free movement. They live in the present moment, unable to plan activities in the long term. All work is done in a line or is abandoned, but never again. At most he know what date it needs to go to a market, a pilgrimage or a family gathering.