miercuri, 28 decembrie 2011
Origins Of The Gypsy/Roma/Rom History
History of the Gypsy/Roma
Diverse, nomadic…to be Roma, or “gypsy,” is to be a member of an ethnic minority that is difficult to define in any definite, factual terms. Throughout their history, the Roma have been comprised of many different groups of people, absorbing outsiders and other cultures while migrating across continents. This has resulted in creating a patchwork of groups calling themselves Roma, Romani, Romany or Gypsy, each with differing cultures, customs, and now in only the current times - written languages.
Despite their differences, the Roma do share certain attributes. Made up of four “tribes,” or nations (natsiya), they are bound together at least through Rom blood and Romani (or Romanes), the root language they share. The Roma also hold common characteristics: they are extremely loyal to family and clan; a strong belief in both Del (God) and Beng (the Devil); belief in predestiny; and Romaniya, loosely translated as certain standards and norms in codes of conduct (which vary in degree from tribe to tribe). At their core, because of their history, they are a people who are adaptable to changing conditions.
There are conflicted points of view to where the Roma or Gypsies originated. Because they arrived in Europe from the East, they were thought by early Europeans to be from Turkey or Nubia. They were even thought to have been from Egypt, and were called, among other things, Egyptians, or ‘Gyptians, which is how the word “Gypsy” originated. The most popular belief among scholars has the origins hail from India. But even their beginning in India is muddled with disagreements and an abundance of cold hard facts. Because of this, the Roma/Gypsy foundation in India has several versions.
Deep in the heart of India around 400 AD, work wasn’t as plentiful as it once was in the small villages. This dilemma forced a handful of Indians to become traveling craftsmen and entertainers. They moved along the countryside entertaining villagers at night and using their skills with wood and/or metal during the day. This subtle start to the nomadic life worked well from this point forward. The handful of wandering people grew in numbers as others embraced the nomadic lifestyle, yet they were still able to stay below the Persian radar until 440 – 443. This is when, rumor has it, the great Persian Shah Bahram Gur persuaded ever so forcefully that the Indian King Shangul should send him 10,000 Luri musicians so that they can run around Persia entertaining the hard-working people. The name Luri is used as opposed to Roma or Gypsy because before the 10th Century, gypsies did not exist by the name of Gypsy or Roma. They were known by various names tribal names including Zott, Jat, Luri, Nuri, Dom, Sinti, Domarai and Athengani.
Around 820, long after the Luri entertained the countryside of Persia, the Zott arrived and set up state on the banks of the Tigris River. The Zott enjoyed life there until the Byzantines attacked Syria in 855. After the war, the Byzantines took huge numbers of Zotts as prisoners. Partly because of they were known for their excellent craftsmanship with wood, metal and construction, the Zotts were used as slave labor to shore up and expand upon the empire. In addition to manual labor, their entertainment skills were also of high value as well as their gift of foretelling the future.
From 1001 – 1026 King Mahmud from Ghazni used put forth a forceful effort to wipe out the Sindh and the Panjab tribes in India. King Mahmud invaded some seventeen times with a mixed army of Turko-Persian from Ghazni (which would be modern – day Iran). Rajput warriors, the Indian fighters (which included Roma/Gypsy), were fierce and cunning, but King Mahmud finally wins. His reward was half a million Indian/Roma/Gypsy slaves.
Another version of the Indian origins doesn’t make any mention of the Roma/Gypsies until the war with King Mahmud (who was called Muhamad Ghazni in this version) in 1001. Here the 500,000 Rajputs fighters were prisoners of war and placed in Afghanistan. While prisoners, they were ordered to convert to Islam by threat of the sword. Many resisted and were either killed or they escaped to Armenia and/or Greece.
Yet another version of the same story had the rulers of India put together troops from a variety of ethnic backgrounds to fight King Mahmud (Mahmud of Ghazni in this version) and keep Islam out of Hindu territory. The Indian/Rajputs Troops were victorious. The descendants of these troops crossed over to south-eastern Europe for asylum, to escape forcible Islam conversion by the Turks, around 1300.
Some other theories that have had people take notice of the Roma/Gypsy origins includes that the first Gypsy was a son of Eve, from her sexual relationships with Adam after his demise. No mention was ever said how he survived the great flood (as in Noah and that Ark). Some others feel that Tubal Cain and his half-brother, Abel, are the originators of the bloodline based on the Book of Genesis, Chapter IV Verses 19 – 22; “Lamech took unto him two wives and the name of one was Adah and the name of the other Zillah. And Adah bore Jubal. He was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah she also bore Tubal Cain, a instructor of every artificer in brass and iron."
Another theory which has gained steam over the years was that the Gypsies/Roma is descendants of Abraham’s children by his second wife, Keturah. She gave him six children; Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbah and Shuah. When the Israelites left Egypt, the children’s descendants went with them. Exodus xii.38: “and a mixed multitude went up also with the Children of Israel.”
While the origins remain scratchy, what most can agree on is that there were great migrations through Roma/Gypsy history that had dispersed them throughout the world, beginning with the first wave when it was assumed they left India over a thousand years ago. The next great move, known as the Aresajipe, was from southwest Asia into Europe during the 14th century. The third great migration was from Europe to the United States during the 19th century and early 20th century after the abolishment of Romani slavery in Europe.
In the second half of the 18th century, European scholars studying the Roma/Gypsy found that the Romani language shared basic words, including numbers, action, family relationships, etc. with the Eastern Indian languages. So it appeared that its roots appear to be based on Sanskrit, the historical language of the Hindus of India.
While the “official” language of the Gypsies, Romani, has many dialects, it is a spoken-only language. There are, still, many common words used by each dialect. Thus, based on language alone the Roma/Gypsy are divided into three sub-groups (which like everything else about the Gypsies is surrounded by controversy): the Domari of the Middle East and Eastern Europe (the Dom), the Lomarvren of Central Europe (the Lom), and the Romani of Western Europe (the Rom). Among themselves the Roma speak their own language; otherwise they speak the language of the country they currently occupy.
The wheel represents a sixteen-spoked chakra, which is the Romani symbol. A chakra is a link back to the Gypsy/Roma’s Indian ancestry (India has the 24-spoked Ashok Chakra in the center of their flag) and represents movement forward and Creation. The Romani flag is green and blue with a red chakra in the center. The Roma motto is “Opré Roma” (Roma Arise) and the song “Gelem, gelem,” also known as “Djelem, djelem” and “Opré Roma,” is the Romani anthem.
Today there are approximately more than twelve million Roma/Gypsies living across the world. It’s difficult to put a final tally on their numbers, as many Gypsies lie about their heritage due to economic, social and political reasons.
Source: The Mysterious & Magical Gypsy/Roma by Allie Theiss (paper for Middle Eastern Class - 2009)
Gypsy/Rom History In the US
The Rom arrived in the United States and Canada from Serbia, Russia and Austria-Hungary beginning in the 1880s, as part of the larger wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Primary immigration ended, for the most part, in 1914, with the beginning of the First World War and subsequent tightening of immigration restrictions. Many in this group specialized in coppersmith work, mainly the repair and refining of industrial equipment used in bakeries, laundries, confectioneries and other businesses. The Rom, too, developed the fortune-telling business in urban areas.
Virtually all the anthropological and sociological work on North American Gypsies concerns the Rom, an emphasis which has led a British observer to label the North American academic tradition "Kalderashocentric," Kalderash being one of the Rom subgroups. The first work covered in this bibliography to concern the Rom appeared in 1903. Material appeared sporadically after that, and steadily from 1928 onward. This group is also referred to in the literature as Nomads, Coppersmiths, Nomad Coppersmiths, Vlach (or Vlax) Gypsies, or by reference to a country from which they immigrated to North America, as Brazilian Gypsies, Bulgarian Gypsies, and so forth. The individual subgroup terms Kalderash and Machwaya are also used. While in the Kalderash dialect of the Romani language, Rom is both singular and plural, the Machwaya dialect has plural Roma, which is also found in the literature. The inflected language of the Rom belongs to the "Vlach" branch of the Romani language family. Native speakers refer to "speaking Romanes" (adverb) "in the Gypsy fashion."
A group of Rom who began immigrating to the United States and Canada from eastern Europe in the 1970s is represented primarily in the police literature, where they are referred to as Yugoslavian Gypsies.
(reprinted from The Gypsy Lore Society) http://www.gypsyloresociety.org/cultureintro.html
Gypsy/Rom Fortune Telling (Dukkerin')
It’s difficult to think of a Gypsy and not see the image of a crystal ball or tarot cards. Since their push into Persia, Gypsies/Roma has been simultaneously linked with fortunetelling. From the Eastern, holistic and magical context to their Indian ori¬gins, Gypsies or Romas, are prized for their remark¬able psychic abilities and the gift to attract good fortune or destroy a life with a curse. All are born with such gifts, but what makes their powers so innate is their relationship with nature. Their bond with the spirits of the outdoors allows their gifts to evolve naturally.
Gypsies/Roma believes that within their own there are certain ones who posses’ great power through the ability to perform magic with their special range of knowledge. Such people known in the Gaje, or white man’s world, are usually called witches, warlocks or wizards but within the Roma/Gypsy society they are known as chovihanis.
Among the chovihani there are four favorites for fortune telling (or dukkerin`): palm reading, tea leaves, the crystal, and cards. These methods are of a “practical” nature and do not take anything complex or expensive to utilize.
Surprisingly, the Roma/Gypsy usually does not consult a chovihani or anyone else for past, present or future knowledge. Nor are the chovihanis held in high esteem because of their gifts; rather it is the money brought in by their gifts that gives them a place of honor within the society.
Palm Reading: Palmistry is the most common divina¬tion method. It requires no special equipment or props of any kind, can be practiced discreetly, and has traditionally been the first method taught to children by their mothers. Palmistry is combination of both chiromancy and chirol¬ogy, or a belief that is based on the idea that certain parts of the body have an indepen¬dent spirit.
The hands can be considered a simple chart of our lives. The left hand reveals the life we are born with while the right hand is what we make of that life. In a reading, the cho¬vihani uses the lines, mounts, divisions, and type of hand to tell of a person’s past, pres¬ent, and future.
Tea Leaves: Reading the tea leaves has always been a pop¬ular divination method, espe¬cially in the 1930s and 1940s when “Gypsy Tea Rooms” sprung up quite frequently, sometimes featuring less than authentic “Gypsies.”
The questioner begins by drinking Chinese tea or any large-leafed variety with a round cup, white or very pale, with a handle. He or she will drink the tea until only a spoon¬ful or less is left in the cup. With their left hand, the tea is swirled around anticlockwise, three times in the cup and then turned upside down to drain. The cup is then turned right-side up and passed to the chovihani to read the leaves.
Crystal Ball: The image of a Gypsy, huddled over a crystal ball, is a familiar one, made popular by the movies and TV. In reality, the crystal ball is rarely used as it takes much preparation before and during the reading. It is difficult to be “on” all day to read the crystal ball. Normally if on call for the day, the chovihani will gaze at the ball but use their own intu¬ition for the reading.
However, utilizing the crys¬tal ball is an art that can be mastered with dedication and patience. For gazing, gather a crystal ball (or any reflective surface - bowl of water, mir¬ror, metal, etc.), a black cloth (to put the ball upon) a com¬fortable chair and a table. The trick here is to “gaze” into the ball and not stare. Meditate for as long as need to quiet your mind, gaze into the ball and interpret the symbolic images that appear.
Tarot Cards: The earliest known tarot deck came from India with the Gypsies introducing them to the world. Many chovi¬hanis are happy to use playing cards in place of tarot cards. Since playing cards are derived from tarot cards, it really makes no difference which one is used in the art of fortunetelling.
A deck of tarot cards consists of seventy-eight richly decorated cards marked with a number of antiquated symbols. The cards are divided into two groups: The Major Arcana, consisting of twenty-two ceremonial pictures of symbolic persons; and the Minor Arcana, fifty-eight cards that represent the four suits.
The methods to interpret the cards are various and plenti¬ful, with many books and web sites devoted to this topic alone. No matter how compli¬cated or simple the method of interpretation, tarot cards are used to gain insight into a person’s actions and how they relate to the past, present and future circumstances.
Among the Gypsies, the magi¬cal arts are almost always prac¬ticed by women. Evidence of the chovihani (female) in gypsy society far outweighs the cho¬vihano (male). The Gaje impres¬sion of a fortuneteller is also that of a woman and not a man. This view is no doubt based on the emotional, psy¬chological and spiritual makeup of women. However, in the Gypsy society more specific and tangible reasons can be found based on the sexual and social categorization of their culture.
Although the quest to place the factorial origin of the Roma/Gypsies in India is far from over, they will always have the image placed on them as the original “free spirits” of the world. The Roma/Gypsy has lived a nomadic existence for thousands of years and has lived in har¬mony with nature longer than most because, this author feels, of their Eastern origins. With a kinship to mind, body and soul that most can only dream of, the Roma/Gypsy have much to teach the Western world, if people would only listen.
Source: The Mysterious & Magical Gypsy/Roma by Allie Theiss (paper for Middle Eastern Class - 2009)
Gypsies/Rom During The Holocaust
Like Jews, the Rom Gypsies were chosen for total annihilation just because of their race. Even though Jews are defined by religion, Hitler saw the gypsies as a race that he believed needed to be completely annihilated. The Nazis believed that both the Jews and Gypsies were racially inferior and degenerate and therefore worthless.
On December 16, 1942, Heinrich Himmler had a "Final Solution" to the gypsy problem and issued an order to send all gypsies to the concentration camps, such as Dachau, Mauthausen, Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausenexcept to perish and become human guinea pigs. But the chosen gypsies, these "lucky" ones from Germany and Nazi-controlled Europe were sent to Auschwitz/Birkenau, where a special Gypsy Family Camp was erected.
At the hands of the so-called "doctors" at Auschwitz/Birkenau they would torture Gypsy children and adults by putting them into pressure chambers, tested with drugs, castrated, frozen to death, and exposed to various other traumas. Some gypsy adults of child-bearing years were lured into voluntary sterilization on the false pretense that to do this would allow them to go free. The female volunteers were injected with chemical substances producing horrible pain, inflamed ovaries and bleeding. If the subject lived through all of that, the damaged ovaries were then removed, without anesthesia, and sent to Berlin. Men and women were positioned repeatedly for several minutes between two x-ray machines aimed at their sexual organs. Their seared flesh was prime for infection, which many died from. Void of anesthesia, men had their testicles sliced off and sent to Breslau.
The man in charge of life and death at Auschwitz/Birkenau, Dr. Josef Mengele, oddly enough loved the gypsy children as much as he hated them. He had a soft spot for them and would give them treats of chocolate and candies. In turn, the children would call him "Uncle Pepe". This Uncle facade allowed Dr. Mengele to get close to the children and made it easier to take them to the children's barrack, nicknamed "The Zoo", in order to be primed for medical and scientific experiments.
In July 1944, the order was given from Berlin to close down the Gypsy Family Camp. Those strong enough to be moved were to be sent to work camps, while the others, mostly women and children, were to be liquidated in the gas chambers. At the end of July and early August 3,000 men were marched out to walk the long distance to the work camps with nothing for survival but the meager clothes on their backs..
"Night of the Gypsies", August 2/3, 1944, the SS rounded up the rest of the gypsies by luring them out of the barracks with the promise of water and bread. Since it was well known by the SS that the gypsies would not go quietly to their deaths, the SS was prepared. After the gypsies realized what was going on they fought back with their bare hands but they were no match for the clubs and guns of the SS. The gypsies were loaded onto the lorries and driven to the gas chambers. Dr. Mengele drove the children under his care to the gas chambers and led them straight to their death. The gypsies fought for their lives until their last breath.
Figures for the number of gypsies killed during the holocaust range from 200,000 to a conservative 500,000. As gypsies could not read or write, many were not registered at the camps and if they were registered, a simple 'Z" was placed where their name should be. Most gypsies were either killed in transit or where they were captured with no record of their deaths. A more realistic number of gypsy deaths is between 1.5 and 4 million, 80% of the European gypsies, slaughtered at the hands of the Nazis.
Dr. Josef Mengele escaped while in custody of the Allied forces and led a long life in South America until he died in 1979 in a drowning accident in Brazil.
The gypsies still await recognition for their suffering.
Excerpt from: Gypsy Magic for the Family's Soul © 2006 by Allie Theiss. All rights reserved.
The Ancient Power Of Healing - Romani Gypsy Shamanism
Deep in the Romanian forest, at the darkest time of night, a Chovihano (Gypsy Shaman) squats over a wooden floor as he engages in an ancient healing ritual. The ones that gather for healing do not see what the Chovihano is doing for he is bathed in the blackness of the night. All they can hear is his low conversations with the Trees and with the Spirits of the Sun, Moon, Air, Earth, Wind and Fire asking for their aid. With his Bakterismasko (magic wand) he drums up the energy around him which by now is starting to flow freely, but powerfully around him.
The Chovihano jingles the Bakterismasko’s bells to ward off any lower unsavory spirits from joining in on the healing ritual. He mummers commands in the Romani tongue as he sprinkles salt for protection around those who have come for healing. He can feel the spirits have gathered to join him in his healing quest and he is in complete control of the Otherworld’s activity.
The Chovihano smiles and talks to all the spirits. It would appear to an outsider that he is talking to himself, but the gypsies that gather know that their Chovihano is in deep conversation with his Guardian Spirits. The gypsies watch him, as they are gathered around a fire with the clan’s Patrinyengri (an herbalist and usually the Chovihano’s wife), as she burns the sacred herbs of rosemary and mugwort for protection and for visions, while she too utters sacred words in the Romani language.
Now it is time for the healing to begin. The Chovihano walks about and jingles, as he is ladened with charms, amulets, talismans, coins and bells for protection. The Chovihano, with the aid of his tambourine, lucky charms and Spirit Guardians, rocks back and forth, moans and makes odd noises as he works himself into a healing trance. He is making contact with his Spirit Guides who will help keep everyone safe during the ritual.
His goal in this healing ritual is to be able to stand in the shoes of those in the group who are sick and/or troubled or bothered by a malevolent spirit so that the problems can pass through him and he can place those problems into one of the three levels of the Otherworld where they belong. If need be he can also travel to the three levels of the Otherworld for soul retrieval, which occurs when someone loses a part of their soul in a past or present life.
To be a Chovihano one is normally the son of the current Chovihano and begins his training in childhood. If no son is born to theChovihano, then he hand picks his successor - with the help of his Spirit Guides - from the young males. The current Chovihanostays the Chovihano until he dies or is too sick to help. This is when the new Chovihano takes his place in the gypsy hierarchy.
The lifelong commitment of the Chovihano is an honor given to the chosen few, but his influence is felt by all the gypsies and throughout the generations.
Excerpt from: Gypsy Magic for the Dreamer's Soul © 2007 by Allie Theiss. All rights reserved.
Gypsies In The Holocaust: "The Black Triangle"
This infuriates me to no end that the deaths of so many gypsies have been ignored by a large chunk of the world - mostly in the United States. This is why I wrote the screenplay, The Black Triangle, a historical drama with fact blended in with fiction to create a compelling and eye opening story.
