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Exploring Gypsiness: Power, Exchange and Interdependence in a Transylvanian Village
Romania has a larger Gypsy population than most other countries but little is known about the relationship between this group and the non-Gypsy Romanians around them. This book focuses on a group of Rom Gypsies living in a village in Transylvania and explores their social life and cosmology. Because Rom Gypsies are dependent on and define themselves in relation to the surrounding non-Gypsy populations, it is important to understand their day-to-day interactions with these neighbors, primarily peasants to whom they relate through extended barter. The author comes to the conclusion that, although economically and politically marginal, Rom Gypsies are central to Romanian collective identity in that they offer desirable and repulsive counter images, incorporating the uncivilized, immoral and destructive -other-. This interdependence creates tensions but it also allows for some degree of cultural and political autonomy for the Roma within Romanian society.
- GenresRomania
232 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 2007
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April 13, 2021
book #26 of 2021: Exploring Gypsiness: Power, Exchange, and Interdependence in a Transylvanian Village by Ada Engebrigsten (pub. 2007) before I first heard Django Reinhardt (marvelous guitarist from back in the day), before I’d ever heard or seen Bizet’s opera Carmen, even before I fell hard for Emily Brönte’s ravishing madman, Heathcliff, in Wuthering Heights, I had somehow heard about gypsies and been entranced by and curious about their adventurous and unique culture. so, coincidentally, on what turned out to be 4 days after international Romaní day, 4/8, I finally finished this short (250 pg), but dense anthropology book. taking a while to finish this book was a casualty of the advent of low effort audiobooks entering my life, however, I also just wanted to savor it: every time I opened it, the author never failed to suck me in completely, with her fascinating cultural depictions: I find well written anthropological studies just magical - this isn’t a common enough experience in my reading life.
so, first of all, “gypsy” is a misnomer, but, it turns out, they did it to themselves: in what Fraser calls the Great Trick, during the onset of the Turkish invasion in the mid 1400s, in an attempt to gain a safe haven and charitable support, the Roma presented themselves to Europeans as Egyptian nobility. In fact, linguists have placed their origin in the Punjab region of northern India, a nomadic people who entered Europe between the 8th-10th centuries C.E.
this book is a description and a discussion of the unconventional societal structure of the Roma people, in this case, in a village in the country where they are most populous, Romania. their family structures are patriarchal. men don’t work! “men prided themselves on being consumers of women’s work, not on being providers.... the only honorable way a man could make money was by some sort of trade.... to strike a bargain is to have luck: to get something for nothing.... ‘man has come to earth to enjoy himself’.... to avoid shameless activities men often find it safer to stay at home and let women do the dirty work.... while women’s success as providers is dependent on their ability to present themselves as either poor and pitiful or assertive and dangerous according to the context, thus confirming and exploiting peasants’ stereotypes of gypsiness, men’s economic success is dependent on their ability to present themselves as cunning and trustworthy and thus to underplay the same stereotypes.... dealing and business are...coherent with the Roma’s ideas of autonomy and luck as inherent traits of Rom maleness.... manual labor, the production of tools and objects for the peasants, together with most types of wage labor, situate Roma at the mercy of gaže (non-Roma): dependent and inferior. this kind of work is contrary to the self-image of Roma and males as autonomous, equal and morally superior to peasants, and thus men try to avoid it.... when there was no other choice, when internal or external circumstances made it impossible to sustain a livelihood with respect and dignity without indulging in degrading occupations, men did such work, like women.”
they don’t revere their ancestors, but, after memorial dinners they celebrate every several months after they’re gone, forget them utterly, no longer using their name, relegating them to the “obscure category ’our ancestors’.... this separation (between life and death) does, however, value life in this world and devalue the world of the dead, in sharp contrast with Orthodox cosmology, with its theology of salvation. there is no idea of sin, punishment, or salvation in the religious beliefs of the hamlet Roma: it is by being fully committed to this world of human existence among one’s fellow Roma that a person may expect honor and fulfillment.”
their relationship with the Romanian villagers is complex and more interdependent than it might at first appear. the Roma beg for alms, both in town, but by also coming by villagers’ homes, knocking on their gates, and awaiting admittance, as well as receipt of whatever they seek: food, money, etc. while the villagers claim that these alms are Christian charity that seeks no recompense, the Roma provide the villagers an interesting array of advantages: the Roma travel more than the villagers so they bring news: true or fabricated but because villagers view Roma as dishonest, they can send them to their neighbors with false news and if the lie is found out, the Roma is blamed; Roma provide illegal and embarrassing items for the villagers, from stolen goods to lice medicine to various superstitious rites, such as fortune telling that modern Romanians wouldn’t want to be seen as believing in. in the fear of the other, a remnant of the post-soviet environment, Romanian villagers see their Hungarian and German neighbors as more cultured than themselves, but are still able to look down on the “tigani” (Roma). I must admit, I felt a greater commonality with the Romanian villagers who wore more dour colors and believed that men should also work, but it’s hard to deny the fascinating attraction to a more flamboyant people who wholly defy the values of Western civilization: because of the Roma’s utter lack of adherence to the villagers’ paradigm, the villagers believe the magically-endowed tigani can do quite possibly anything.
note: normally, in these reviews, I try to write a negligee: enough to tantalize, without destroying someone’s future reading experience, if they decide to check the book out, themselves: however, I judged this anthropological study to be outside the interest of most readers, so I instead wrote a more comprehensive account, though still really just presenting some highlights: I hope I have not taken anything from anyone. if this topic seems like something you want to explore, there is definitely much more in this book that is worthy of your attention. 5/5. and now for something completely (well quite a bit) different....
so, first of all, “gypsy” is a misnomer, but, it turns out, they did it to themselves: in what Fraser calls the Great Trick, during the onset of the Turkish invasion in the mid 1400s, in an attempt to gain a safe haven and charitable support, the Roma presented themselves to Europeans as Egyptian nobility. In fact, linguists have placed their origin in the Punjab region of northern India, a nomadic people who entered Europe between the 8th-10th centuries C.E.
this book is a description and a discussion of the unconventional societal structure of the Roma people, in this case, in a village in the country where they are most populous, Romania. their family structures are patriarchal. men don’t work! “men prided themselves on being consumers of women’s work, not on being providers.... the only honorable way a man could make money was by some sort of trade.... to strike a bargain is to have luck: to get something for nothing.... ‘man has come to earth to enjoy himself’.... to avoid shameless activities men often find it safer to stay at home and let women do the dirty work.... while women’s success as providers is dependent on their ability to present themselves as either poor and pitiful or assertive and dangerous according to the context, thus confirming and exploiting peasants’ stereotypes of gypsiness, men’s economic success is dependent on their ability to present themselves as cunning and trustworthy and thus to underplay the same stereotypes.... dealing and business are...coherent with the Roma’s ideas of autonomy and luck as inherent traits of Rom maleness.... manual labor, the production of tools and objects for the peasants, together with most types of wage labor, situate Roma at the mercy of gaže (non-Roma): dependent and inferior. this kind of work is contrary to the self-image of Roma and males as autonomous, equal and morally superior to peasants, and thus men try to avoid it.... when there was no other choice, when internal or external circumstances made it impossible to sustain a livelihood with respect and dignity without indulging in degrading occupations, men did such work, like women.”
they don’t revere their ancestors, but, after memorial dinners they celebrate every several months after they’re gone, forget them utterly, no longer using their name, relegating them to the “obscure category ’our ancestors’.... this separation (between life and death) does, however, value life in this world and devalue the world of the dead, in sharp contrast with Orthodox cosmology, with its theology of salvation. there is no idea of sin, punishment, or salvation in the religious beliefs of the hamlet Roma: it is by being fully committed to this world of human existence among one’s fellow Roma that a person may expect honor and fulfillment.”
their relationship with the Romanian villagers is complex and more interdependent than it might at first appear. the Roma beg for alms, both in town, but by also coming by villagers’ homes, knocking on their gates, and awaiting admittance, as well as receipt of whatever they seek: food, money, etc. while the villagers claim that these alms are Christian charity that seeks no recompense, the Roma provide the villagers an interesting array of advantages: the Roma travel more than the villagers so they bring news: true or fabricated but because villagers view Roma as dishonest, they can send them to their neighbors with false news and if the lie is found out, the Roma is blamed; Roma provide illegal and embarrassing items for the villagers, from stolen goods to lice medicine to various superstitious rites, such as fortune telling that modern Romanians wouldn’t want to be seen as believing in. in the fear of the other, a remnant of the post-soviet environment, Romanian villagers see their Hungarian and German neighbors as more cultured than themselves, but are still able to look down on the “tigani” (Roma). I must admit, I felt a greater commonality with the Romanian villagers who wore more dour colors and believed that men should also work, but it’s hard to deny the fascinating attraction to a more flamboyant people who wholly defy the values of Western civilization: because of the Roma’s utter lack of adherence to the villagers’ paradigm, the villagers believe the magically-endowed tigani can do quite possibly anything.
note: normally, in these reviews, I try to write a negligee: enough to tantalize, without destroying someone’s future reading experience, if they decide to check the book out, themselves: however, I judged this anthropological study to be outside the interest of most readers, so I instead wrote a more comprehensive account, though still really just presenting some highlights: I hope I have not taken anything from anyone. if this topic seems like something you want to explore, there is definitely much more in this book that is worthy of your attention. 5/5. and now for something completely (well quite a bit) different....
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