Gypsies are one of the most mysterious nations living in Russia. Some are afraid of them, others admire their cheerful songs and lively dances. As for the origin of this people, there are a wide variety of versions on this matter.

Version one: Indian

The most amazing thing is that the Roma are one of the few peoples in the world who do not officially have their own country. In 2000, they were legally recognized as an extra-territorial nation. For the past one and a half millennia, they have been roaming all over the world. The most paradoxical thing is that it is still unknown exactly how many representatives of this ethnic group live on the planet. The figure usually given is 11 million, but it is often questioned. There is a legend according to which gypsies appeared on Earth magically. That is why they allegedly have an innate ability for fortune telling and divination. Modern scientists, of course, cannot be content with such a theory. According to them, the gypsies originated in India, from where they emigrated to Western Asia in the 5th century. It is assumed that the reason that prompted them to leave this country was the spread of Islam. As a freedom-loving nation, the Roma categorically did not want to come under the pressure of any religious dogmas.

Version two: philistine

Unfortunately, after leaving India, the gypsies did not find a new homeland in European countries. From the 14th to the 19th centuries they were openly feared and disliked. Their way of life, very different from the European one, caused sharp rejection. Appeared in European countries whole line discriminatory laws against Roma, including a ban on their residence in a particular state. Many philistine fables were also born, many of which told about the origin of the gypsies. Since this people did not have written sources describing their history, the guesses about their arrival in Europe were one more incredible than the other. European townspeople assured each other that the gypsies were the remnants of the people of Atlantis, the ancient Egyptians or German Jews. It is noteworthy that the Egyptian version had indirect confirmation. The fact is that on the way from India the gypsies actually visited Egypt. According to some sources, their ability for magic and astrology was inherited from the Egyptian priests. This hypothesis turned out to be so popular that in Hungary the gypsies began to be called nothing more than “the people of the pharaohs”, and in England - Egyptians. The most interesting thing is that the gypsies not only did not refute such inventions, but also supported them. When encountering negative attitudes towards themselves in European countries, they assumed a mystical fog as a defense.

Version three: Athos

Today, based on the similarity of the language of the Gypsies and a number of Indian nationalities, scientists have quite accurately established their place of origin. Nevertheless, a number of ancient authors called Asia the birthplace of this people. The famous scientist Henri de Spond argued that the Gypsies descended from the medieval Atsingan sect. This theory arose from the first written record of the appearance of gypsies in Europe, dating back to 1100. Its authorship is attributed to George Mtatsmindeli, a monk of the Athos Monastery. He associated the gypsies with the Atsingan sect. Byzantine sources adhered to the same version, considering the Atsingans to be the remnants of a Manichaean sect that disappeared in the 8th century. It is important to note that the Atsingans not only looked like gypsies in appearance, they also actively practiced magical rituals.

Version four: Asian

The ancient historians Strabo and Herodotus associated the appearance of the gypsies with the Central Asian tribe of the Siggins. Indeed, linguists, studying the language of the Roma, have established the route of their settlement around the world. From India, gypsy tribes moved to the territory of Western Asia, mainly to Iran, Afghanistan and Armenia. Their next stop was Byzantium, from which the gypsies spread throughout the Balkan Peninsula. In the 15th century they came to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. A century later, tribes of Gypsies could be found throughout Central, Western and Northern Europe. At the same time, it should be noted that the gypsy tribes scattered around the world are heterogeneous in composition. Over the course of one and a half millennia of wandering around the planet, they have absorbed such a huge number of representatives of other peoples that they have largely lost their historical national identity.

The content of the article

GYPSIES, or Roma, are a nomadic people, or more precisely, ethnic groups with common roots and language, whose origins can be traced to northwestern India. Today they live in many countries of the world. Gypsies are usually black-haired and dark-skinned, which is especially typical for populations living in countries close to India, although lighter skin is not typical for Gypsies at all. Despite their spread throughout the world, the Gypsies remain everywhere a distinct people, more or less adhering to their own customs, language and maintaining a social distance from the non-Gypsy peoples around whom they live.

Gypsies are known by a number of names. In the Middle Ages, when the Gypsies first appeared in Europe, they were mistakenly called Egyptians, because they were identified as Mohammedans - immigrants from Egypt. Gradually this word (Egyptians, Gyptians) was shortened, becoming "gypsy" ("gipsy" in English), "gitano" in Spanish and "giphtos" in Greek. Gypsies are also called "zigeuner" in German, "Gypsies" in Russian, "zingari" in Italian, which are variations of the Greek word athinganoi meaning "don't touch" - an offensive name for a religious group that formerly inhabited Asia Minor and shunned, like the Gypsies , contacts with strangers. But the Gypsies do not like these names, preferring the self-designation “Roma” (plural, Roma or Roma) from “Romani (person).”

Origin.

In the middle of the 18th century. European scientists managed to find evidence that the Gypsy language comes directly from the classical Indian language Sanskrit, which indicates the Indian origin of its speakers. Gray-anthropological data, in particular information on blood groups, also indicate an origin in India.

Much, however, remains unclear regarding early history Gypsy. Although they speak one of the languages ​​of the Indian group, it is quite possible that they are actually descended from the Dravidian aborigines of this subcontinent, who eventually began to speak the language of the Aryan invaders who occupied their territory. In recent years, scholars in India itself have begun to academically study the Roma, and there is also a renewed interest in the subject in Western academic circles. The myths and misinformation surrounding the history and origins of this people are gradually dissipating. It became obvious, for example, that the Gypsies were nomads not because they possessed any nomadic instinct, but because widespread discriminatory legislation left them no choice but to continue their constant movement.

Migration and settlement.

New historical and linguistic evidence indicates that the migration of Gypsies from northwestern India occurred in the first quarter of the 11th century. as a result of a series of Islamic invasions led by Mohammed Ghaznavid. According to one hypothesis, the ancestors of the Gypsies (sometimes called "Dhomba" in the literature) organized themselves into military units called Rajputs to fight these invasions. Over the next two centuries, the Gypsies moved further and further west, stopping in Persia, Armenia and the territory of the Byzantine Empire (the modern language of the Gypsies contains many Persian and Armenian words and, especially, many words from Byzantine Greek), and reached southeastern Europe in the mid-13th century.

The movement to the Balkans was also caused by the spread of Islam, which was the cause of the migration of gypsies from India two centuries earlier.

Not the entire mass of Gypsies crossed the Bosphorus and entered Europe; one of its branches migrated eastward to the areas of today's Eastern Turkey and Armenia and became a separate and quite distinct sub-ethnic group known as “Lom”.

Another population widespread throughout the Middle East is the Dom, which was long thought to be part of the original Roma migration (from India, but later split off from the main population somewhere in Syria). While the "house" itself and their language are clearly of Indian origin, their ancestors apparently represented a separate and much earlier wave (possibly 5th century) of migration from India.

In the Byzantine Empire, the Gypsies acquired a deep knowledge of metalworking, as indicated by the metallurgical vocabulary in the language of the Gypsies of Greek and Armenian (non-Indian) origin. When the gypsies came to the Balkans and, in particular, to the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, this knowledge and skills ensured a steady demand for their services. This new artisan population of Gypsies proved so valuable in fact that in the early 1300s laws were passed making them the property of their employers, i.e. slaves. By 1500, approximately half of the Roma had managed to leave the Balkans for northern and western Europe. The resulting division between those who remained enslaved in Wallachia and Moldavia (today's Romania) for five and a half centuries and those who left is of fundamental importance in the history of the Gypsies and is referred to in literature as the First European Gypsy Diaspora.

It did not take long for the Balkan population to realize that the Gypsies were completely different from the Muslims they so feared. But the population in countries more distant from the Balkans, i.e. in France, Holland and Germany, for example, there was no previous opportunity to meet Muslims directly. When the gypsies arrived there with their exotic speech, appearance and clothing, they were associated with Muslims and were called “pagans”, “Turks”, “Tatars” and “Saracens”. The Gypsies were easy targets because they had no country to return to and no military, political or economic power to defend themselves. Over time, one country after another began to introduce repressive measures against them. In Western Europe, punishments for being a Gypsy included lashing, mutilation, deportation, galley slavery, and even, in some places, execution; in eastern Europe, gypsies remained slaves.

Political changes in 19th-century Europe, including the abolition of slavery for Gypsies, led to a sharp increase in their migration, marking the period of the Second European Gypsy Diaspora. A third diaspora emerged in the 1990s with the fall of communist regimes throughout eastern Europe.

Gypsies who were enslaved were either house slaves or slaves in the fields. These broad categories include many smaller occupational groups. Brought to work in the houses of landowners, the gypsies eventually lost their language of Indian origin and acquired Romanian, based on Latin. Now Romanian-speaking gypsies such as "boyash", "rudari" ("miners") and "ursari" ("bear guides") are found not only in Hungary and the Balkans, but also in Western Europe and in other regions of the Western Hemisphere.

Much more of the ancient traditions were preserved by groups of gypsies descended from field slaves. Kalderasha ("copper workers"), Lovara ("horse traders"), Churara ("sieve makers") and Močvaja (from the Serbian town of Močva) all speak closely related dialects of the Romani language. These languages ​​form a dialect group called Vlax or Vlach, characterized by a large influence of Romanian. By the end of the 19th century. Vlax-speaking gypsies undertook long journeys in search of places where they could settle. Countries in Western Europe were inhospitable due to centuries of anti-Gypsy legislation, so the main flow of migration was directed east to Russia, Ukraine and even China, or, through Greece and Turkey by sea to North and South America, South Africa and Australia. After World War I, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire central Europe caused a mass exodus of Roma from these lands to Western Europe and North America.

During World War II, the Nazis targeted the Gypsies for genocide, and the Gypsies were targeted for extermination along with the Jews by Reinhard Heydrich's notorious decree of July 31, 1941, to implement the "Final Solution." By 1945, almost 80% of all Gypsies in Europe had died.

Modern settlement.

Gypsies are dispersed throughout Europe and western Asia and are found in parts of Africa, North and South America and Australia. The exact number of Roma in each country, however, cannot be determined because censuses and immigration statistics rarely single them out, and centuries of persecution have taught Roma to be wary of identifying their ethnicity on census forms. There are between 9 and 12 million Roma in the world. This estimate is given by the International Union of Roma: about one million in North America, about the same in South America, and between 6 and 8 million in Europe, where Roma are concentrated mainly in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and elsewhere in the Balkans.

In the thousand years or so since the exodus of the Gypsies from India, their way of life has become remarkably varied, although each group has retained to a greater or lesser extent elements of the basic culture of the Gypsies. Those that have settled in one place for a long time tend to acquire the national characteristics of the people who adopted them. In both Americas, a significant number of gypsies appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although the gypsies have a legend that on Columbus's third voyage in 1498, there were gypsy sailors among the crew, and the first representatives of this people appeared there in pre-colonial times. It is documented that the first gypsies appeared in Latin America (on the Caribbean islands) in 1539, when persecution against this people began in Western Europe. They were gypsies from Spain and Portugal.

New waves of immigrants began arriving in the Americas after 1990.

Life of gypsies.

Despite their common linguistic, cultural and genetic heritage, Roma groups have become so diverse as a result of time and space that it would be inappropriate to attempt to paint a generalized portrait of them. The rest of the article focuses on the Vlax-speaking Gypsies, who are the largest and most geographically widespread population.

Social organization.

Taken as a whole, the life of the Gypsies is called “romanipen” or “romania” and is built on the basis of a complex system of family relationships. A group of related families forms a clan ("vista" clan), headed by a leader called a "baro" (he is not a king; the so-called kings and queens of the Gypsies are an invention of journalists). He is the recognized leader of his group and can control its movements and represent it in contacts with outsiders. On important matters he can consult with the elders of whist. Violations of the rules of morality and conduct may be dealt with by a special assembly of men called the kris. This court has jurisdiction over a wide range of violations, including material and matrimonial matters. Punishments may include fines or exclusion from the community, with the culprit being called merimeh or ritually unclean. Since contact with non-Gypsies is avoided as a matter of course, and since the Gypsy community itself must exclude anyone who is a Merime, the individual in this situation ends up in conditions of complete isolation. This idea of ​​ritual pollution, inherited from India and extended to the individual in his relationship to food, animals and other human beings, was the most general factor that contributed to the fact that the Gypsy populations remained separate from others and internally united.

Marriages with gojes (non-gypsies) are frowned upon; even the choice of marriage with other gypsies is limited. In the case of mixed marriages, children will be considered Gypsies only if their father is one. The family plays an active role in the formalities of marriage, which to the uninitiated may seem lengthy and complex. Firstly, there are long negotiations between parents, especially about the amount of the “darro” (dowry). This is the amount to be compensated for the earning potential of a "bori" or daughter-in-law who is transferred from her family and is included in the family of her new relatives by marriage. The wedding itself (“abiav”) is held in a hall rented for the occasion with the presence of many friends and relatives. The celebrations accompanying the wedding usually last three days. Once created, the marital union usually remains permanent, but if divorce is necessary, the consent of the “kris” may be required. As a rule, civil and ecclesiastical marriages are becoming increasingly common, even if they represent only the final phase of a traditional ritual.

The official religion did not have much influence on the way of life of the gypsies, although they were unable to escape the attempts of missionaries to convert them to their faith. They accepted, in most cases superficially, such religions as Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism of the countries in which they lived for some time. The exception is the surprising and very rapid adoption by some groups of the charismatic “new” Christianity of recent years.

The most famous religious holidays of Romani Catholics are the annual pilgrimages to Quebec to the Basilica of St. Anne (Sainte Anne de Beaupre) and to the town of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer on the Mediterranean coast of France, where gypsies gather every time from everywhere 24 –May 25, to honor their patron saint Sarah (according to legend, an Egyptian).

Livelihood and recreation.

Gypsies prefer activities that provide them with minimal contact with the “gadje” and independence. Services catering to occasional needs and an ever-changing clientele fit well with the Gypsy lifestyle, which may require an individual to travel urgently to attend a wedding or funeral, or attend a 'kris' in another part of the country. The Gypsies are versatile, and the means by which they earn their living are numerous. But there are some main professions of gypsies - such as horse trading, metal working, fortune telling and, in some countries, picking vegetables or fruits. For joint economic ventures, Roma may also form a purely functional association “kumpania”, whose members do not necessarily belong to the same clan or even to the same dialect group. In self-employment, many Roma work as peddlers, especially in Europe. Some resell goods purchased at a lower price, others sell on the streets, noisily offering goods they themselves produced, although in the 20th century. a number of Roma crafts suffered from competition with mass-produced products. Women play their full role in earning their livelihood. They are the ones who carry baskets with produced goods from door to door and do fortune telling.

Although many of the names of the various groups of Gypsies are based on the occupations in which they were engaged during the period of slavery, they can no longer serve as a reliable guide to the activities of specific families. In Mexico, for example, coppersmiths are now much more likely to be operators of mobile film installations than metal workers. For many coppersmiths in the United States, the main source of income is the fortune telling salon ("office"), which may be located in the front of the fortune teller's house or in the front of the store.

Gypsies are also known to be great entertainers, especially as musicians and dancers (several famous actors, including Charles Chaplin, talk about their ancestors being Gypsies). In Hungary and Romania in particular, gypsy orchestras with their virtuoso violinists and dulcimer players have created their own style, although much of what audiences hear is, in fact, European music with a gypsy interpretation. There is another, very special type of music - the original music of the Gypsies, which is a highly rhythmic sequence of tones in which few or no instruments are used and the dominant sound is often the sound of clapping hands. Research has shown that much of the Central European classical musical tradition and the works of composers such as Liszt, Bartok, Dvorak, Verdi and Brahms are marked by significant Romani influence. The same has been demonstrated by research regarding the Jewish music klezmer, which is characterized by unusual scales and lively rhythms.

In Andalusia, in southern Spain, according to one study conducted by the University of Wisconsin, gypsies, along with Moroccans, created the tradition of flamenco as a covert way of expressing anger towards the repressive Spanish regime. From Andalusia, the style spread through the Iberian Peninsula and then into Spanish-speaking America until flamenco-style song, dance, and guitar playing became an accepted form of popular entertainment. Since the late 1970s, the music of the six-guitar Gipsy Kings has propelled modern flamenco-based music into the pop charts, while the jazz guitar technique of the late Django Reinhardt ) (he was a gypsy) experienced a revival thanks to his great-nephew Bireli Lagrene.

Like all peoples with a developed oral tradition, gypsy storytelling reaches the level of art. Over the course of many generations, they expanded their folklore, selecting and adding to it folk tales the countries in which they settled. In exchange, they enriched the folklore of these nations with oral histories acquired during past migrations.

Due to strict restrictions on communication with outsiders, the gypsies spent a lot of their free time in each other's company. Many of them believe that the negative consequences of being among the Gadje can only be compensated by the time they spend among their own at community ritual events, such as christenings, weddings, etc.

Food, clothing and shelter.

The eating habits of Western European gypsy groups reflect the influence of their nomadic lifestyle. Soups and stews, which can be cooked in one pot or cauldron, as well as fish and game meat occupy a significant place in their cuisine. The diet of sedentary Eastern European gypsies is characterized by the use of a large amount of spices, especially hot peppers. Among all groups of gypsies, food preparation is strictly determined by the observance of various taboos of relative cleanliness. The same cultural considerations govern issues of clothing. In Romani culture, the lower part of the body is considered unclean and shameful, and women's legs, for example, are covered with long skirts. In the same way, married woman must tie a scarf around her head. According to tradition, acquired values ​​are converted into jewelry or gold coins, and the latter are sometimes worn on clothing as buttons. Since the head is considered the most important part of the body, many men draw attention to it by wearing wide hats and large mustaches, while women love large earrings.

Mobile homes are of great importance for those families whose livelihoods require them to be constantly on the move. There are still large numbers of Gypsy families, especially in the Balkans, who travel in light open carts drawn by horses or donkeys and sleep in traditionally constructed tents made of canvas or woolen blankets. The relatively recent appearance of the gypsy cart, decorated with intricate carvings, complements rather than replaces the tent. Together with the less picturesque horse-drawn carriage, this residential carriage is quickly falling into disuse in favor of the motorized trailer. Some of the gypsies with trucks or cars with trailers adhere closely to the old habits of the cart people, while others have fully embraced such modern conveniences as bottled cooking gas and electricity.

Modern gypsy population.

Various groups of Roma in Europe were almost completely destroyed by the fires of the Holocaust, and it was not until more than four decades later that their national movement began to gain strength. For the Roma, the concept of “nationalism” does not mean the creation of a real nation-state, but it implies the acquisition of recognition by humanity of the fact that the Roma are a separate, non-territorial nation of people with their own history, language and culture.

The fact that Roma live throughout Europe but do not have a country of their own has led to enormous problems following the fall of Eastern European communist regimes and the resurgence of ethnic nationalism there. Like those gypsies who first came to Europe seven and a half centuries ago, European gypsies of the 20th century. are increasingly perceived as very different from traditional European peoples and a nuisance. To combat these prejudices, the Roma organized themselves into several political, social and cultural groups with the goal of developing ideals of self-determination. The International Roma Union has been a permanent member of the UN Council for Economic and Social Development since 1979; By the end of the 1980s, it had gained representation in the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and UNESCO, and in 1990 the formation of the European Roma Parliament began. By the beginning of the 1990s, a large number of Roma professionals had already appeared, such as journalists and political activists, educators, and politicians. Ties were forged with the ancestral homeland of India - since the mid-1970s, the Indian Institute of Romani Studies has existed in Chandigarh. Roma organizations focused their work on combating racism and stereotyping in the media, and seeking reparations for the war crimes that led to the deaths of Roma in the Holocaust. In addition, the issues of standardizing the Roma language for international use and compiling a twenty-volume encyclopedia in this language were resolved. Gradually literary image“nomadic gypsies” are replaced by the image of a people ready and able to take their place in today’s heterogeneous society.

The main source of information on all aspects of Gypsy history, language and lifestyle is the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, published from 1888 to the present.

- Bohemiens(“Bohemians”, “Czechs”), Gitans(garbled Spanish Gitanos) or Tsiganes(borrowing from Greek - τσιγγάνοι, Tsingani), Germans - Zigeuner, Italians - Zingari, the Dutch - Zigeuners, Hungarians - Cigany or Faraok nepe(“Pharaoh’s tribe”), Georgians - ბოშები (boshebi), Finns - mustalaiset(“black”), Kazakhs - sygandar, Lezgins - karachiyar(“hypocrites, pretenders”); Basque - Ijitoak; Albanians - Jevgjit(“Egyptians”); Jews - צוענים (tso'anim), from the name of the biblical province of Tsoan in Ancient Egypt; Persians - کولی (koli); Lithuanians - Čigonai; Bulgarians - Tsigani; Estonians - “mustlased” (from “Must” - black). Currently, ethnonyms from the self-name of a part of the gypsies, “Roma” (English) are becoming increasingly widespread in various languages. Roma, Czech Romové, Finnish romanit, etc.).

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 a distinctive feature of appearance, made in different languages ​​(typically, one of the self-names of the gypsies is also translated as “black”)

Romani people live in many countries in Europe, as well as in North Africa, the Americas and Australia. Groups related to European gypsies also live in the countries of Western Asia. The number of European gypsies, according to various estimates, ranges from 8 million to 10-12 million people. There were officially 175.3 thousand people in the USSR (census). According to the 2010 census, about 220 thousand Roma live in Russia.

National symbols

In honor of the first World Gypsy Congress, April 8 is considered Gypsy day. Some gypsies have a custom associated with it: in the evening, at a certain time, they carry a lighted candle along the street.

History of the people

Indian period

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, low-caste groups appear in various areas of modern India today. Despite the fact that modern houses in India are difficult to directly relate to the gypsies, their name has a direct connection with them. 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. 20th century by the prominent Indologist-linguist R.L. Turner, and which is shared by modern scientists, in particular, linguists-Romologists J. Matras and J. Hancock, show that the ancestors of the Gypsies lived in the central regions of India and several centuries before the exodus (approximately in the 3rd century BC) migrated to Northern Punjab.

As for the so-called Central Asian gypsies, or Lyuli, they are, as is sometimes figuratively said, cousins ​​or even second cousins ​​of the European gypsies. Thus, the Central Asian gypsy population, over the centuries absorbing various streams of migrants from Punjab (including Baloch groups), has historically been heterogeneous (see, for example, an early description of the Central Asian gypsies: Vilkins A.I. Central Asian bohemia // Anthropological exhibition . T. III. M., 1878-1882).

In the book “History of the Gypsies. A New Look" (N. Bessonov, N. Demeter) provides examples of anti-Gypsy laws:

Sweden. A law from 1637 prescribed the hanging of male Gypsies.

Mainz. 1714 Death to all Gypsies captured within the state. Flogging and branding of women and children with hot irons.

England. According to the law of 1554, the death penalty was for men. According to an additional decree of Elizabeth I, the law was tightened. From now on, execution awaited “those who have or will have friendship or acquaintance with the Egyptians.” Already in 1577, seven Englishmen and one Englishwoman fell under this decree. They were all hanged at Aylesbury.

Some of the gypsies managed to avoid repression by enlisting in the army as soldiers or servants (blacksmiths, saddlers, grooms, etc.) in those countries where soldier recruitment was active (Sweden, Germany). Their families were thereby also taken out of harm's way. The ancestors of Russian gypsies came to Russia through Poland from Germany, where they mainly served in the army or with the army, so at first among other gypsies they bore the nickname, roughly translated as “army gypsies.”

The repeal of anti-Gypsy laws coincides with the beginning of the industrial revolution and Europe's recovery from the economic crisis. After the repeal of these laws, the process of integration of Roma into European society began. Thus, during the 19th century, gypsies in France, according to Jean-Pierre Lejoie, author of the article “Bohemiens et pouvoirs publics en France du XV-e au XIX-e siecle”, mastered professions thanks to which they were recognized and even began to be valued: they they sheared sheep, weaved baskets, traded, were hired as day laborers in seasonal agricultural work, and were dancers and musicians.

However, by that time, anti-Gypsy myths were already firmly rooted in the European consciousness. Now traces of them can be seen in fiction, linking gypsies with a passion for child abduction (the goals of which are becoming less and less clear over time), werewolves and service to vampires.

By that time, the abolition of anti-Gypsy laws had not occurred in all European countries. Thus, in Poland, on November 3, 1849, a decree was passed on the arrest of nomadic gypsies. For each Roma detained, the police were paid bonuses. As a result, the police captured not only nomadic, but also sedentary gypsies, recording those detained as vagrants and children as adults (to get more money). After the Polish Uprising of 1863, this law became invalid.

It can also be noted that, starting with the abolition of anti-Gypsy laws, gifted individuals in certain areas began to appear among the Gypsies, stand out and receive recognition in non-Gypsy society, which is another evidence of the prevailing situation, which is more or less favorable for the Gypsies. So, in Great Britain in the 19th and early 20th centuries, these were preacher Rodney Smith, footballer Rabie Howell, radio journalist and writer George Bramwell Evens; in Spain - Franciscan Ceferino Jimenez Mallya, Tocaor Ramon Montoya Salazar Sr.; in France - jazzmen brothers Ferret and Django Reinhardt; in Germany - boxer Johann Trollmann.

Gypsies in Eastern Europe (XV - early XX centuries)

Migration of Roma to Europe

At the beginning of the 15th century, a significant part of the Byzantine gypsies led a semi-sedentary lifestyle. Gypsies were known not only in the Greek regions of Byzantium, but also in Serbia, Albania, the lands of modern Romania (see slavery in Romania) and Hungary. They settled in villages or urban settlements, gathering compactly based on kinship and profession. The main crafts were working with iron and precious metals, carving household items from wood, and weaving baskets. Nomadic gypsies also lived in these areas, who also engaged in crafts or circus performances using trained bears.

The sons and heirs of the deceased Serdar Nikolai Nico, in Bucharest, are selling 200 families of gypsies. Men are mostly metalworkers, goldsmiths, shoemakers, musicians and farmers.

Monastery of St. Elijah offered for sale the first lot of gypsy slaves, May 8, 1852, consisting of 18 men, 10 boys, 7 women and 3 girls: in excellent condition.

Gypsies in Europe and the USSR/Russia (second half of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century)

In modern Eastern Europe, less often in Western Europe, Roma are often the target of discrimination in society, especially from right-wing extremist parties; in 2009, attacks on Romanian Roma in Northern Ireland were reported

At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, Europe and Russia were swept by a wave of Roma migrations. Impoverished or marginalized Roma from Romania, western Ukraine and the former Yugoslavia - former socialist countries that experienced economic and social difficulties after the collapse of the USSR - went to work in the European Union and Russia. Nowadays, they can be seen literally at any crossroads in the world; the women of these gypsies have returned en masse to the ancient traditional occupation of begging; drug trafficking and petty theft are also common.

In Russia, there is also a slower but noticeable impoverishment, marginalization and criminalization of the Roma population. The average educational level has decreased. The problem of drug use among teenagers has become acute. Quite often, gypsies began to be mentioned in crime chronicles in connection with drug trafficking and fraud. The popularity of gypsy musical art has noticeably decreased. At the same time, the Gypsy press and Gypsy literature were revived.

In Europe and Russia, there is active cultural borrowing between gypsies of different nationalities, a common gypsy music and dance culture is emerging, which is strongly influenced by the culture of Russian gypsies.

Gypsies outside Europe

Gypsies in Israel

• Gypsy house. Israel and neighboring countries are home to a community of gypsies known as the Dom people. By religion, the house is Muslim and speaks one of the dialects of the Gypsy language (the so-called Domari language). Until 1948 in ancient city Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, there was an Arabic-speaking house community whose members took part in street theater and circus performances. They became the subject of the play "The Gypsies of Jaffa" (Hebrew: הצוענים של יפו‎), the last of which was written by Nissim Aloni, the famous Israeli playwright. The play has come to be considered a classic of Israeli theater. Like many Jaffa Arabs, most of this community left the city due to the call of neighboring Arab countries. The descendants of the community are believed [ Who?], now live in the Gaza Strip, and it is unknown to what extent they still maintain a separate Domari identity. Another Dom community is known to exist in East Jerusalem, whose members hold Jordanian citizenship; in Israel they have the status of permanent residents, their nationality is defined as “Arabs”. In total, the community house in Israel numbers about two hundred families, most of them from the Bab al Huta area, in East Jerusalem near the Lion Gate. Members of the community live in very poor conditions: most of them are unemployed and live only on benefits from Israeli social security, they have no education, and some of them cannot read or write. The birth rate among the Domari is high, they marry at an early age and only to members of their community, including relatives (in an effort to avoid assimilation and dissolution), so some of the children suffer from hereditary diseases, defects or are disabled. In October 1999, Amun Slim founded the non-profit organization Domari: The Gypsy Society of Jerusalem to protect the name of the community. ,

In October 2012, the head of the Roma quarter of East Jerusalem appealed to the mayor of the capital, Nir Barkat, with a request for assistance in obtaining Israeli citizenship for his compatriots. According to him, the Roma are much closer in their views to Jews than to Arabs: they love Israel, and their children would like to serve in the IDF. According to a community leader, Israeli Roma have practically forgotten their language and speak Arabic, while Palestinians and Israeli Arabs consider the Roma to be “second-class” people.

Gypsies in North Africa

North Africa is home to the Kale Gypsies, also known as the Andalusian Gypsies, and Dom. Film director Tony Gatlif is a Kale originally from Algeria. The Calais of North Africa are nicknamed “Moors” in the gypsy world and often use it themselves (for example, both Tony Gatlif and Joaquin Cortes, whose father is from North Africa, call themselves “Moor” or “half-Moor”).

Gypsies in Canada and the USA

Gypsies in Latin America

The first documented mention of the presence of gypsies (Kale) in Latin America (in the Caribbean) dates back to 1539. The first gypsies were exiled there against their will, but subsequently Spanish Calais and Portuguese Calons (groups related to each other) began to move in small groups to Latin America in search of a better life.

The largest wave of resettlement of European gypsies to Latin America occurred in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. The most noticeable part of the settlers were the Kelderars, among the remaining gypsies we can mention the Lovars, Ludars, as well as groups of Balkan gypsies known collectively as Khorakhane. Both Kale and Calons continued to move to America.

Among all the gypsies of Latin America, running a small business selling cars is very popular.

Gypsies in the Caucasus countries

Roma in different countries are characterized by uneven development of areas of high culture. Thus, the majority of gypsy artists are natives of Hungary, the most developed musical culture among the gypsies of Russia, Hungary, Romania, Spain, the Balkan countries, gypsy literature is currently more developed in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia, acting art - in Russia, Ukraine , Slovakia. Circus art - in the countries of South America.

With all the diversity of gypsy culture among different ethnic groups, one can note a similar system of values ​​and perception of the world.

Gypsy "large" ethnic groups

There are six main branches of gypsies. Three Western:

• Roma, main territory of residence - the countries of the former USSR, Western and Eastern Europe. These include Russian gypsies (self-name Russian Roma).
• Sinti, living primarily in German-speaking and French-speaking countries in Europe.
• Iberian (Gypsies), living mainly in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries.

And three eastern ones:

• Lyuli, main territory of residence - Central Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan.
• Scrap (known mainly as bosha or posha), living in the Caucasus and northern Turkey.
• Home living in Arabic-speaking countries and Israel.

There are also “small” gypsy groups that are difficult to attribute to any specific branch of the gypsies, such as the British Kales and Romanichels, the Scandinavian Kales, the Balkan Horakhanes, and the Arkhangelsk Tsygobites.

In Europe, there are a number of ethnic groups similar in lifestyle to the Gypsies, but of a different origin - in particular, Irish Travelers, Central European Yenish. Local authorities tend to view them as a subset of Roma, rather than as a separate ethnic group.

The image of gypsies in world artistic culture

Gypsies in world literature

• Notre Dame Cathedral - novel by V. Hugo France
• Ice House - novel by A. Lazhechnikov Russia
• The Living Corpse - play by L. N. Tolstoy Russia
• The Enchanted Wanderer - a novel by Nikolai Leskov Russia
• Olesya - story, Alexander Kuprin Russia
• Pharaoh's tribe - essay, Alexander Kuprin Russia
• Cactus - story by Afanasy Fet Russia
• Nedopyuskin and Tchertopkhanov - I. Turgenev Russia
• Carmen - short story by Prosper Merimee France
• The Stars of Eger - a novel by Geza Gordoni Hungary
• Makar Chudra, Old Woman Izergil - stories by M. Gorky Russia
• Gypsy Aza - play by A. Staritsky Ukraine
• Gypsy - M. Cervantes Spain
• Gypsy Romancero - collection of poems by Federico Garcia Lorca Spain
• The Pipe - a story by Yuri Nagibin USSR
• Gypsy - story, novel by Anatoly Kalinin USSR
• Gypsy Lady - novel by S. Busby USA
• Losing Weight - novel by S. King USA

Many famous poets also devoted cycles of poems and individual works to the gypsy theme: G. Derzhavin, A. Apukhtin, A. Blok, Apollon Grigoriev, N. M. Yazykov, E. Asadov and many others.

Songs about gypsies

• Slavich Moroz: “Gypsy Love” ( Video , video)
• Vysotsky: “Gypsy with cards, the road is long...” ( Video)
• “Fortune Teller” - song from the movie “Ah, vaudeville, vaudeville...”
• “Gypsy Choir” - Alla Pugacheva
• “Valenki” - Lidia Ruslanova
• “Gypsy Wedding” - Tamara Gverdtsiteli ( Video)
• “Shaggy Bumblebee” - song from the movie “Cruel Romance” based on poems by R. Kipling
• "The Gipsy" and "A Gipsy's Kiss" - Deep Purple
• "Gypsy" - Mercyful Fate
• "Hijo de la luna" - Mecano
• "Gypsy" - Black Sabbath
• "Gypsy" - Dio
• "Cry Of The Gypsy" - Dokken
• "Zigeunerpack" - Landser
• "Gypsy In Me" - Stratovarius
• "Gitano Soy" - Gipsy Kings
• "Ocean Gypsy" - Blackmore's Night
• "Electro Gypsy" - Savlonic
• "Gypsy/Gitana" - Shakira
• "Gypsy" - Uriah Heep
• "Gypsy Boots" - Aerosmith
• "Gypsy Road" - Cinderella
• "Gypsy Nazi" - S.E.X. Department
• "Gypsy" - Ektomorf
• "Cigany" - Ektomorf
• "Gipsy King" - Patrick Wolf
• "Hometown Gypsy" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• "Gypsy Blues" - Night Snipers
• "The camp goes into the sky" - Calvados

Films about gypsies

• "Guardian Angel", Yugoslavia (1986), director Goran Paskaljevic
• "Run, gypsy!"
• "Snatch" directed by Guy Ritchie
• “Time of the Gypsies”, Yugoslavia, director Emir Kusturica
• “Gadzho (film)”, 1992, Director: Dmitry Svetozarov Russia
• “Sinful Apostles of Love” (1995), director Dufunya Vishnevsky Russia
• “Drama in a camp of gypsies near Moscow” - Khanzhonkov’s workshop 1908, director Vladimir Siversen Russia
• “Yesenia”, (Spanish: Yesenia; Mexico, 1971) directed by Alfred B. Crevenna
• “Hare over the Abyss” 2006, director Tigran Keosayan Russia
• “Carmelita” 2005, directors Rauf Kubaev, Yuri Popovich Russia
• “Cassandra”, Genre: TV series, melodrama Production: Venezuela, R.C.T.V. Year of release: 1992 Screenplay: Delia Fiallo
• “King of the Gypsies” - directed by Frank Pearson (1978) USA
• “Lăutari”, director Emil Loteanu USSR
• “The Last Camp”, (1935) Directors: Evgeny Shneider, Moses Goldblat, USSR
• “On My Own” (gym. Korkoro, 2009) - drama film directed by Tony Gatlif.
• “Feather Buyers”, 1967, Yugoslavia, (Serbian: Skupljaci perja), director Alexander Petrovich
• “Strange Stranger” (1997) Gadjo Dilo Gadjo Dilo, directed by Tony Gatlif
• “The camp goes to heaven”, director Emil Loteanu USSR
• “Difficult Happiness” - Director Alexander Stolper. 1958

1. "Gypsies" is a collective term, the same as "Slavs", "Caucasians", "Scandinavians" or "Latin Americans". Several dozen nationalities belong to the gypsies.

2. The Roma have a national anthem, a flag and art culture, including literature.

3. Gypsies are conventionally divided into Eastern and Western.

4. The Gypsies as a nation were formed in Persia (eastern branch) and the Roman Empire (aka Romea, aka Byzantium; western branch). In general, when talking about gypsies, they usually mean Western gypsies (Roma and Kale groups).

5. Since the Roma gypsies are Caucasians and arose as a nation in a European country, they are Europeans, and not a “mysterious eastern people,” as journalists like to write. Of course, like the Russians and Spaniards, they still have some heritage of Eastern mentality.

6. “Eastern” gypsies began to be called gypsies only in the 19th and 20th centuries, when Europeans visiting Asia drew attention to their external resemblance to gypsies, as well as some common crafts and traditions. “Eastern” Gypsies have a culture that is sharply different from the “general Gypsy” (i.e., the culture of the noticeably more numerous and culturally developed “Western” Gypsies), although both have something in common cultural heritage Indian ancestors. “Eastern” and “Western” gypsies practically do not communicate.

7. The Romani languages ​​are overwhelmingly descendants of Sanskrit. Ethnically, the Gypsies are descendants of the Aryans, with a Dravidian admixture (the Dravidians are the indigenous population of India, conquered by the Aryans, one of the oldest literate cultures, at the time of the conquest they were more developed than the culture of the nomadic Aryans).

8. Contrary to the statements of some people who are far from ethnography and history, there was never any “expulsion of the Gypsies” from India and the Roman Empire.

In India there were no gypsies at all, there were Hindus. According to recent genetic and linguistic studies, the ancestors of the Gypsies, a group of Hindus of the "house" caste of approximately 1,000 people, left India sometime in the 6th century. It is assumed that this group of musicians and jewelers was presented by the Indian ruler to the Persian, as was the custom of that time. Already in Persia, the size of the group grew greatly, and a social division appeared within it (mainly by profession); In the 9th–10th centuries, part of the Roma began to gradually move westward and finally reached Byzantium and Palestine (two different branches). Some remained in Persia and from there spread to the east. Some of these gypsies eventually reached the homeland of their distant ancestors - India.

9. The gypsies left Byzantium during the period of its conquest by Muslims, in the hope of receiving help from fellow Christians (the people and times were naive). The exodus from the Roman Empire lasted for decades. Some Gypsies, however, remained in their homeland for various reasons. Their descendants eventually converted to Islam.

10. There is a hypothesis that the gypsies received the nickname “Egyptians” back in Byzantium, for their dark complexion and for the fact that the most noticeable part of the gypsies, like the visiting Egyptians, were engaged in circus art. Another nickname was associated with circus art and fortune telling, from which the word “gypsies” came: “atsingane”. Initially, this was the name given to certain sectarians seeking secret knowledge. But over time, apparently, the word has become a household word, ironic for anyone involved in esotericism, magic tricks, fortune telling and divination. The gypsies even then called themselves “Roma” and gave themselves the nickname “kale”, that is, dark-skinned, dark-skinned

11. It is believed that it was the gypsies who widely spread belly dancing in Muslim countries. However, there is no evidence or refutation of this.

12. Traditional areas of activity for Gypsies include the arts, trade, horse breeding and crafts (from the prosaic of brick making and basket weaving to the romantic art of jewelry and embroidery).

13. Soon after coming to Europe, the Gypsies became one of the victims of great socio-economic crises and were subjected to severe persecution. This has led to severe marginalization and criminalization of Roma. What saved the Gypsies from complete extermination was the generally neutral or friendly attitude of the majority of the common people, who did not want to implement bloody laws against the Gypsies.

14. They say that the famous Papus learned fortune telling from the gypsies.

15. The Inquisition was never interested in the gypsies.

16. Medicine knows no cases of leprosy among the Roma. The most common blood types among Roma are III and I. The percentage of III and IV blood is very high compared to other European peoples.

17. In the Middle Ages, Gypsies, like Jews, were accused of cannibalism.

18. In the 18th and 19th centuries, with increasing tolerance towards them in European society, the crime rate of the Roma decreased sharply and greatly. In the 19th century, a very rapid process of integration of Roma into society began in Europe.

19. Gypsies came to Russia more than 300 years ago. Like other now established peoples (for example, Kalmyks), they received imperial permission to live in Russia and engage in traditional crafts (trade, horse breeding, fortune telling, singing and dancing). After some time, these gypsies began to call themselves Russian Roma, which is still the largest gypsy nationality in Russia. By 1917, the Russian Roma were the most integrated and educated Gypsies in Russia.

20. At various times, Kalderars (Kotlyars), Lovaris, Servas, Ursaris, Vlachs and other gypsies also immigrated to Russia.

21. Almost all names of Roma nationalities are either the names of key professions or reflect the name of the country they consider their homeland. This says a lot about Roma priorities.

22. The famous gypsy national costume was invented in the 19th century. The Kalderars were the first to wear it. The Russian Roma national costume was invented by artists to create a more exotic stage image. Historically, Gypsies have always tended to wear clothing typical of their country of residence.

23. Gypsies are famous pacifists. However, at various times they served with the armies and in the armies of Germany, Prussia, Sweden and Russia.

In 1812, Russian Roma were voluntarily handed over for maintenance Russian army large amounts. Young Roma boys fought as part of the Russian troops.

At the same time, what’s funny is that quite a few French gypsies fought in Napoleon’s army. There is even a description of a meeting between two gypsies from different sides during the battle between the Spaniards and the French.

During the Second World War, Gypsies participated in hostilities as part of both regular armies (USSR, France; privates, tank crews, military engineers, pilots, orderlies, artillerymen, etc.) and partisan groups, mixed and purely Gypsy (USSR , France, Eastern Europe). The guerrilla actions of the Roma against the Nazis are sometimes called “Aryans against Aryans.”

24. As a result of the systematic targeted extermination of the Gypsies by the Nazis, about 150,000 Gypsies (for comparison, in the USSR lived from 60,000, according to the census, to 120,000, according to assumptions) died in Europe. "Gypsy Holocaust" is called Kali Thrash (there are also variants Samudaripen and Paraimos).

25. Among the outstanding Roma there are scientists, writers, poets, composers, musicians, singers, dancers, actors, directors, boxers (including champions), football players, historians, politicians, priests, missionaries, artists and sculptors.

Some are better known, for example, Marishka Veres, Ion Voicu, Janos Bihari, Cem Mace, Mateo Maximov, Yul Brynner, Tony Gatlif, Bob Hoskins, Nikolay Slichenko, Django Reinhardt, Bireli Lagren, others less, but can also boast of significant contributions to gypsy culture.

26. If you see the phrase “nomadic people” without quotation marks in an article about Russian gypsies, you don’t have to read it. The author will not write anything truly reliable if he does not even know the fact that only 1% of Russian Gypsies are nomadic.

27. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, despite the fact that in the media Roma fraud is in first place when mentioned in criminal articles, in statistics they are in last place. Ethnographers believe that the situation with gypsy fraud and drug trafficking is similar in Russia.

28. During Stalin's time, the Roma were subjected to targeted repression.

29. The term “gypsy baron” has been used by gypsies only for the last couple of decades, and not by everyone. This is borrowed from the media and romantic literature. The term is used specifically to communicate with non-Gypsies.

30. There are several notable gypsy theaters in the world: in Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Germany, as well as smaller theaters and studios in these and other countries.

31. One of the most interesting gypsy concepts is the concept of “filth”. It is associated with the lower part of the body of a married or just an adult woman. All she has to do is walk over something and the place becomes “desecrated.” Clothing worn by a woman below the waist and shoes are automatically considered “defiled.” Therefore, the women's national costume of many gypsies around the world includes a large apron. And for the same reason, in order not to be desecrated, gypsies prefer to live in small, one-story houses.

32. Short hair among gypsies is a symbol of dishonor. The hair of the exiled and isolated was cut. Until now, gypsies avoid very short haircuts.

33. Gypsies understand many simple phrases spoken in Hindi. That's why gypsies love some Indian films so much.

34. Roma have “undesirable” professions, which are usually hidden so as not to “fall out” of Roma society. These are, for example, factory work, street cleaning and journalism.

35. Like every nation, gypsies have their own national dishes. Since ancient times, gypsies lived in or near the forest, so they ate animals caught in hunts - hares, wild boars and others. A special national dish of the Gypsies is hedgehog, fried or stewed.

36. Carriers of gypsy genes are called Romano rats. Romanians are recognized as having the right, if they wish, to become gypsies. Romano Rath is the guitarist of the Rolling Stones group Ronnie Wood, Sergei Kuryokhin, Yuri Lyubimov, Charlie Chaplin and Anna Netrebko.

37. The word “lave” in Russian slang is borrowed from the Gypsy language, where it has the form “lowe” (Gypsies do not “akayut”) and the meaning “money”.

38. An earring in one ear of a gypsy means that he is the only son in the family.

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Each of you has had to meet these people more than once in your life. In my childhood, post-war years, I happened to live for some time in the same locality 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, ethnonyms from the self-name of a part of the gypsies, “Roma”, are becoming increasingly widespread in various languages.
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 a distinctive feature of appearance, made in different languages ​​(typically, one of the self-names of the gypsies is also translated as “black”)
The number of European gypsies, according to various estimates, ranges 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, low-caste groups appear in various areas of modern India today. Despite the fact that modern houses in India are difficult to directly relate to the gypsies, their name has a direct connection with them. 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 the central regions of 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 the gradual development of the caste system, the d'om / d'omba occupied 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, which 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 he lives in many countries of the former USSR, including Russia. They speak their own dialect of the Romani language, with lexical borrowings from the Crimean Tatar and Russian languages.

In 1944, Crimean Gypsies, like the 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 the Krasnodar Territory 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 them 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 genomes 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 delusional nature 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 the Jews who came out of ancient Egypt.
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;niche (German Jenische, also a self-name), “nomadic”, “white gypsies” - an ethnographic and social group of heterogeneous origins 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 close to them in their way of life. In modern Switzerland, the Yenish are considered by the authorities as one of the groups of gypsies. 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 of the Ottoman Empire, was legally prohibited only in February 1856, but it actually 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. The first written mention of Romani slaves in Romania appeared on October 3, 1385. At various times, hypotheses have also been put forward that 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 that had long cultivated the institution of plazag.
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.