Archaeology of the Romani people
The Romani people has a long history, and most likely hails from the Indian subcontinent. Throughout said history, the highly diverse Roma population has faced significant persecution – antiziganism – in many parts of the world, in modern times, even when this issue gradually being resolved in some areas, the field of Romani archaeology remains virtually unexplored. This is especially the case in Sweden and Norway, where the Norwegian, two sites in particular have gone through several stages of excavation, with a third excavation project beginning in 2015. One is Snarsmon, a Romani village close to the Norwegian border in Tanum Municipality which was active as a sanctuary from the 1860s until the first years of the 20th century, surveys began in 2003, with yearly excavations between 2004 and 2007. The second Swedish site is Krämarstaden, likewise a Romani village, the village was established in the first years of the 20th century, and abandoned in the beginning of the 1920s. In August 2015, excavations began at a Romani campsite outside of Stockholm, the camp was built in 1959 by the Swedish state as a temporary solution, until apartments could be arranged for the Romani, who had just been given full civic rights.
The camp soon became permanent as the process was dragged out, its inhabitants – about thirty people – living in tents, caravans. It will result in a book and a report, in addition to certain finds forming part of the Swedens History exhibition at the Swedish History Museum. One of these, Tattardalen in Kungälv Municipality, is a ruined farmstead dating back to the 1600s, another example of possibly Romani-related archaeology is a June 2010 excavation of the Caird’s Cave in Rosemarkie, Scotland, a site possibly inhabited by Scottish Gypsy and Traveller groups. In addition to archaeology directly relating to Romani sites, there have some research done into the archaeogenetics. Contemporary archaeology Ethnoarchaeology Timeline of Romani history
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Zoroastrianism and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire.
The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River.
The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
Nomad
A nomad is a member of a community of people who live in different locations, moving from one place to another. Among the various ways nomads relate to their environment, one can distinguish the hunter-gatherer, as of 1995, there were an estimated 30–40 million nomads in the world. Nomadic hunting and gathering, following seasonally available wild plants and game, is by far the oldest human subsistence method, pastoralists raise herds, driving them, or moving with them, in patterns that normally avoid depleting pastures beyond their ability to recover. Nomadism is a lifestyle adapted to regions such as steppe, tundra, or ice and sand. For example, many groups in the tundra are reindeer herders and are semi-nomadic and these nomads sometimes adapt the use of high technology such as solar photovoltaics to reduce their dependence on diesel fuel. These groups are known as peripatetic nomads, a nomad is a person with no settled home, moving from place to place as a way of obtaining food, finding pasture for livestock, or otherwise making a living.
The word Nomad comes from a Greek word that one who wanders for pasture. Most nomadic groups follow an annual or seasonal pattern of movements and settlements. Nomadic peoples traditionally travel by animal or canoe or on foot, some nomads travel by motor vehicle. Most nomads live in tents or other portable shelters, Nomads keep moving for different reasons. Nomadic foragers move in search of game, edible plants, the Australian Aborigines, Negritos of Southeast Asia, and San of Africa, for example, traditionally move from camp to camp to hunt and to gather wild plants. Some tribes of the Americas followed this way of life, Pastoral nomads make their living raising livestock, such as camels, goats, sheep, or yaks. These nomads travel to find more camels and sheep through the deserts of Arabia, the Fulani and their cattle travel through the grasslands of Niger in western Africa. Some nomadic peoples, especially herders, may move to raid settled communities or avoid enemies. Nomadic craftworkers and merchants travel to find and serve customers and they include the Lohar blacksmiths of India, the Romani traders, and the Irish Travellers.
Most nomads travel in groups of families called bands or tribes and these groups are based on kinship and marriage ties or on formal agreements of cooperation. A council of adult males makes most of the decisions, though some tribes have chiefs, in the case of Mongolian nomads, a family moves twice a year. These two movements would generally occur during the summer and winter, the winter location is usually located near mountains in a valley and most families already have their fixed winter locations
Romani Americans
It is estimated that there are one million Romani people in the United States. The Romani and genealogically different from other Europeans, began settling in America in the mid-19th century, the largest wave of Romani immigrants came after the abolition of Romani slavery in Romania in 1864. The terms lack of significance within the United States prevents many Romani from using the term around non-Romani, the U. S. Census does not distinguish Romani as a group since it is neither a nationality nor a religion. The Romani people originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan, more exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, in February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India.
The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora. The Romanichal, the first Romani group to arrive in North America in large numbers, hungarian-Slovak Romani, The Romani of Northern Hungary largely settled in industrial cities of the Northern United States near the turn of the century. Among Romani from these areas were Olah and Bashalde immigrants and they were noted for their musical traditions and popularized Romani music in the United States by performing in cafes, night clubs and restaurants. Keep a Low Profile, October 13,2010 Gypsy Americans, everyculture. com Roma, Texas State Historical Association
Ruska Roma
The Ruska Roma, known as Russian Gypsies or as Xaladitka Roma, are the largest subgroup of Romani people in Russia. Initially known as Ruska Roma, they live mostly in Russia and Belarus, but in Eastern and Central Ukraine, France and the United States. The Ruska Romani language contains some German and Russian words, most Ruska Roma are Orthodox Christians, while those living in predominantly Muslim areas tend to be Muslim. Their traditional professions include horse trading, dancing, as of 2016 most Romani singers, actors and musicians in Russia are of the Ruska Roma. Their musical culture is considered to be the leading Romani culture in Russia, the Ruska Roma traditional clothing is based on Russian and Kalderash traditional clothing, and is used actively by singers and dancers. Modern Ruska Roma are one of the most educated Romani groups in Russia, at the beginning of the 19th century there already existed several Romani choruses consisting of Ruska Roma who were servants. They were considered to be so talented that their owners emancipated them, Romani choruses of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg were very popular during the 19th century.
Russian noblemen sometimes married Romani chorus girls, in Russia, Ruska Roma were mostly nomadic horse traders and singers. They traveled during the summer and stayed in cottages of Russian peasants during the winter and they paid for their lodging with money or with work on the horses. Ruska Roma were very popular among peasants who liked their music and dances, in 1812, when Napoleon I invaded Russia, the Romani diaspora of Moscow and Saint Petersburg gave large sums of money and good horses for the Russian army. Many young Romani men took part in the war as uhlans, at the end of the 19th century Rusko Rom Nikolai Shishkin created a Romani theater troupe. One of its plays was in the Romani language, after the October Revolution, some Romani families left Russia. Some young Romani men took part in the civil war, in the 1920s and 30s, Roma of the Soviet Union produced a literary norm of the Romani language that was based on a dialect of Ruska Roma. Romani literature and press appeared, most of the poets, writers, in the 1930s the Roma of the U. S. S. R. were subjected to mass repressions.
Romani press and literature were forbidden, during World War II some of the Ruska Roma entered the army, by conscription and as volunteers. They took part in the war as soldiers, infantrymen, artillerymen, drivers, some teenagers, old men and adult men were partisans. Romani actors, musicians, dancers performed for soldiers in the front line, a huge number of Roma, including many of the Ruska Roma, died or were murdered in territories occupied by the enemy, in battles, and in the siege of Leningrad. After World War II Ruska Romas music became very popular, romen Theatre, Romani singers and ensembles prospered
Byzantine music
Byzantine music, in a narrow sense, is the music of the Byzantine Empire. Originally it consisted of songs and hymns composed to Greek texts used for courtly ceremonials, during festivals, Byzantine music did not disappear after the fall of Constantinople. During the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, the new self-declared patriarchates were independent nations defined by their religion. It was imitated by musicians of the 7th century to create Arab music as a synthesis of Byzantine and Persian music, the term Byzantine music is sometimes associated with the medieval sacred chant of Christian Churches following the Constantinopolitan Rite. The triodion created during the reform of Theodore was translated into Slavonic which required the adaption of melodic models to the prosody of the language. It is being discussed that in the Narthex of the Hagia Sophia an organ was placed for use in processions of the Emperor’s entourage. Nevertheless, both schools have in common a set of 4 octaves, each of them had a kyrios echos with the finalis on the degree V of the mode, and a plagios echos with the final note on the degree I.
The Pythagorean sect and music as part of the four cyclical exercises which preceded the Latin quadrivium and science based on mathematics. Greek anachoretes of the early Middle Ages did still follow this education, according to him philosophy was divided into theory and practice, and the Pythagorean heritage was part of the former, while only the ethic effects of music were relevant in practice. The mathematic science harmonics was usually not mixed with the topics of a chant manual. Nevertheless, Byzantine music is modal and entirely dependent on the Ancient Greek concept of harmonics and its tonal system is based on a synthesis with ancient Greek models, but we have no sources left which explain us, how this synthesis was done. It seems that the fixed degrees became part of a new concept of the echos as melodic mode, after the echoi had been called by the ethnic names of the tropes. The bowed lyra is played in former Byzantine regions, where it is known as the Politiki lyra in Greece, the Calabrian lira in Southern Italy.
The second instrument, the organ, originated in the Hellenistic world and was used in the Hippodrome in Constantinople during races, a pipe organ with great leaden pipes was sent by the emperor Constantine V to Pepin the Short King of the Franks in 757. Pepins son Charlemagne requested a similar organ for his chapel in Aachen in 812, the final Byzantine instrument, the aulos, was a double reeded woodwind like the modern oboe or Armenian duduk. Other forms include the plagiaulos, which resembled the flute, and the askaulos and these bagpipes, known as Dankiyo, had been played even in Roman times. Dio Chrysostom wrote in the 1st century of a sovereign who could play a pipe with his mouth as well as by tucking a bladder beneath his armpit. The bagpipes continued to be played throughout the former realms down to the present
Romani Mexicans
There is a significant Roma population in Mexico, most being the descendants of past migrants. According to data collected by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, they numbered 15,850, however, in Mexico, they are commonly known as gitanos or rom. The first gypsy group in Mexico were the Spanish gitanos that arrived during the Colonial era, some of the mid-19th century migrants may have arrived to Mexico via Argentina. In the late 19th and early 20th century migrants from Hungary, Poland, in 1931, after a substantial colony of these latter gypsies had settled, and following complaints of delinquency, the law was changed to prohibit further settlement in Mexico. According to the Joshua Project, there are 51,000 Romani/Vlax in Mexico, in the mid 1900s, Romani caravans were known for showing movies in rural towns. Today, their economic activities revolve around the sale of textiles, cars and jewelry. Alfonso Mejia-Arias - musician and politician La Lagunilla Market - popular with Romani merchants D. W.
Pickett, The Gypsies of Mexico, Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society,1966
Ursari
The Ursari or Richinara are the traditionally nomadic occupational group of animal trainers among the Romani people. The Ursari form an important part of the Roma community in Romania and they form a sizable part of the Roma present in Serbia and Western European countries such as the Netherlands and Italy. The word Ursari may refer to a dialect of Balkan Romani, as spoken in Romania and Moldova, although it is estimated that most Ursari, like the Boyash, speak Romanian as their native language. There is no consensus on whether Ursari belong to the Sinti subgroup of the Roma people or to the other half of the Roma population. A Romanian poll conducted in 2004 among 347 Roma found that 150 referred to themselves as Ursari, the Coşniţari group, present on both sides of the Danube, is believed to be a segment of the Ursari. In decades, they were probably among the people referred to as Egyptians. The Ursari formed part of the population in the Danubian Principalities before the abolitions of the 1840s and 1850s.
With the Boyash, the Kalderash, and groups of Roma smiths, Ursari formed the category of lăieşi, by the early decades of the 19th century, most of the state-owned Roma were lăieşi, as opposed to private-owned ones. Ursari people and the Boyash-proper traditionally accompanied the Kalderash on their travels to Rumelia, according to Thouvenel, Ursari were known for veterinary skills, which, he argued, the superstition of people in the countryside attributes to the possession of a magic art. In addition to handling, the community would occasionally trade in wild animals. Female members of the community were known for their practice of fortune-telling, as early as the rule of Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza, they formed a staple of such spectacles, alongside the music-playing Lăutari, the Căluşari, and freak shows. At around the time, they included a section of zavragii. Also during the late 19th century, the Ursari came to be attested in Imperial Russian-ruled Bessarabia, a similar move originated in Serbia, around Kragujevac, with Boyash and Ursari moving into northern and central Italy.
In time, a significant number of Ursari joined circuses, while others began manufacturing and trading bone objects and leather. The bears were taught to make dancing moves to a tambourine, or trained to walk upright and perform such as leaning on canes. It has been reported that bear training involved burning the paws of cubs to the rhythm of music, the official explanation for the measure was that such patterns of movement were helping to spread typhus. Over the following years, under Ion Antonescus regime, members of the Ursari community were among the Roma people deported to Transnistria, interdictions on performing with bears were legislated throughout the Eastern Bloc. In April–June 1991, following the Revolution of 1989, Ursari in several localities of Romanias Giurgiu County — Bolintin Deal, Ursari people were chased away, and many of their lodgings were burned to the ground
Romani people in Kosovo
Romani people in Kosovo living usually in Mahalas are part of the biggest minority in Europe. Mainly there are historical differences claimed, Roma speak Roma language in most cases. However the language/s that surrounds them such as Serbian and Albanian, many Romani were targeted by Kosovo Albanians with the Serbs during the Kosovo War as being considered to be allied with Serbs and Serbian national interests. Romani in Kosovo are much depleted from their former numbers, and have been in both stationary and nomadic residence there since the 15th century. Kosovo Liberation Army expelled 50,000 Romani from Kosovo, forcing them to refuge in central Serbia. In 2011 there were 36,694 Romani and Egyptians living in Kosovo, as in other parts of the Balkans, the denomination of Romani has always been subject to outside pressure. In the official census, the labels Romani and Egyptians were used, after the war and encouraged by the international community, the label Romani and Kosovo Egyptians and its abbreviation RAE became more common.
Whereas the Ashkali and Kosovo Egyptians maintain their distinct origin, this is contested by Kosovo Romani who claim that all three groups are actually Romani subgroups. While all the three groups claim ethnic differences between them, they frequently intermarry, Romani weddings to non-Romani is extremely rare. Egyptians and Ashkalija however do not classify one another as Gadje and they have been subject to nativisation and assimilation, with many having Albanian names depending on the power profile of the day. Most have their own naming system for use among their own people, Romani in Kosovo, like Serbs and other minorities, today live in constant fear of further ethnic unrest. Romani unhoused in North Kosovo are today housed in lead-infested camps in North Kosovska Mitrovca, there is ongoing campaign for rehousing and proper health provisions for the families affected, and a fatality estimate ranges from 27 to 81. Serbianising and Albanianising lead to the Romani sliding from the educational mainstream, third level is not attained by the majority of Rom, and of those who do, they are mostly only half Romani, with there being Serb, Turk or Albanian heritage too.
Returning IDPs were housed by NATO / UNMIK in North Kosovska Mitrovica in a mine site. They were helped by NGO the KRRF, led by Paul Polansky and Balkan Egyptians Romani people in Albania Who we Were, Who we Are, Kosovo Roma Oral History Collection. The most comprehensive collection of information on Kosovos Roma in existence
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