Stereotypes and Prejudices: Roma Culture: Customs, Traditions & Beliefs

STEREOTYPES AND PREJUDICES
Roma Culture: Customs,

Traditions & Beliefs
Who are the Gypsies/ Romani
Peolple?
For centuries, stereotypes and prejudices have
had a negative impact on the understanding of
Roma culture, according to the Romani Project.
Also, because the Roma people live scattered
among other populations in many different
regions, their ethnic culture has been influenced
by interaction with the culture of their
surrounding population. Nevertheless, there are
some unique and special aspects to Romani
culture.
Origins
There are 2 theories about the roots of the
gypsies:
1) Legend of musicians- they are decendents of
12 000 musicians given as a gift to the ruler of
Persia, who eventually got bored of them, on a
journey to the far corners of the earth
"Egyptians"→Gypsy
2) They were slaves/ refugees running from India
during a Muslim army invasion
Assimilation
=the minority is incorporated into the

dominant culture to the point that it
no longer exists as a separate cultural
unit
Gypsies, often referred to as Roma, are today,
one of the largest ethnic minorities in Europe —
about 12 million to 15 million people, according to
UNICEF, with 70 percent of them living in Eastern
Europe. About a million Roma live in the United
States, according to Time. Statistics say that
621.600 Roma live in our country.
Society has always found the Romanies an
ethnic puzzle and have tried to fit them, by
force or fraud, piety or policy into some
framework of its own conception, but so far
without success.
Male/Female-Kingship-Social
relashionships
◦-Teen marriages are common. Married women usually wear
head scarfs
◦-Romani usually carries more than one name
◦-Elders have a high status and respect
◦Massive number of relatives and friends
◦The youngest son is obligated to care for his parents
Birth- Children
◦-Children are loved; belived to bring good luck
◦-Boys are preferred
◦-Births cannot take place in Romani’s home
(seen as unclean)→ deliver at a hospital
◦-Saliva may be placed on the shoulder of a
woman in labour to ease pain
Prejudice against Gypsies
◦Prejudice= Devaluing or looking down on a
group of its assumed behavior, values,
capabilities or atributes
◦Poor acces to Education: In the field of education
and training, discrimination based on ethnic origin
has often limited the acces of Roma people to quality
education
◦Bad Employment Opportunities: They are at the
very bottom of every society, bearing the “stick” of
the poorest, the most unemployed, the least
educated and the most welfare-dependant.
Stereotypes of Gypsies
◦Stereotypes=fixed common ideas that are
often unfavorable about what members of a
group are like
◦Gypsy=abbreviation of gysy, meaning a sly,

unscupilous person
◦Ioanida Costache is a violinist,
videographer, and Roma activist. She hails
from Oregon, where her parents landed
after immigrating in 1985 from Bucharest,
Romania. Currently, Ioanida is a PhD
candidate in ethno/musicology at Stanford
University. Her work explores issues of
race and ethnicity,
performance/construction of identity,
cultural memory, trauma, and history as
they intersect in Romani musico-oral
traditions. short documentary film, Light
Upon (2014) paints a portrait of her violin
teacher, Nicu Ciotoi and touches on issues
of identity and heritage through musical
transmission.
Itinerant Lifestyle
◦As strangers in
strange land, the
Romani have felt
safest clinging to
their group, identity
and remaining aloof
from outsiders.
◦1554=Being a Gypsy was a felony
◦ video
◦In addition to Jews, homosexuals and other
groups, the Roma were targeted by the Nazi
regime in World War II.
◦The german word for gypsy, “Zigeuner”=
Greek root, means racially inferior
◦In Romania, the Orthodox Church held Roma as
slaves for 500 years. The Church needs to ask for
public forgiveness for Roma enslavement.
National Flag
◦The Blue and green
represent heaven and
earth. The wheel
represents the
travelling spirit of the
Roma and the red is a
symbol of good, health
and happiness.
April, 8th =Internalional Day of the Roma
◦Problema romaneasca-O analiza a rasismului
romanesc→ a book on racism- collected
essays of acasremic and own lives
experiences

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STEREOTYPES AND PREJUDICES

Roma Culture: Customs,

=the minority is incorporated into the

◦Gypsy=abbreviation of gysy, meaning a sly,

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