{"id":1344,"date":"2014-04-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/04-04-2014-correct-half-right-and-wrong-information-about-the-history-and-culture-of-the-rroma\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T11:48:25","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T10:48:25","slug":"04-04-2014-correct-half-right-and-wrong-information-about-the-history-and-culture-of-the-rroma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/04-04-2014-correct-half-right-and-wrong-information-about-the-history-and-culture-of-the-rroma\/","title":{"rendered":"04.04.2014 Correct, half-right and wrong information about the history and culture of the Rroma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" class=\"MsoNormal\">On the occasion of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t8th of April, the international Rroma day, Zimmermann (2014) discusses the history \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand culture of the Rroma. She spreads truths, but also some half- truths and misinformation \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tabout Rroma. She begins with the migration history from India, which she \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tunfortunately only sees authenticated by the DNA-analysis. The linguistic \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tanalysis of the Rromanes, which gives an undeniable proof of the Indian roots \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the Rroma, as Rromanes is related to Sanskrit, remains unmentioned. However, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tshe rightly acknowledges that the repeatedly falsely attributed travelling \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlifestyle is related to the expulsion of the Rroma: <em style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u201cThe Romani people were discriminated against for their dark skin and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tonce enslaved by Europeans. They have been portrayed as cunning, mysterious \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\toutsiders who tell fortunes and steal before moving on to the next town. [\u2026] Also, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tas a matter of survival, the Romani were continuously on the move. They \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdeveloped a reputation for a nomadic lifestyle and a highly insular culture. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBecause of their outsider status and migratory nature, few attended school and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tliteracy was not widespread. Much of what is known about the culture comes \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthrough stories told by singers and oral histories.\u201d<\/em> Unfortunately, Zimmermann \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\temphasizes far too little the big quantity of misinformation and pejorative stereotypes \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat were maintained through these oral histories. Particularly problematic is her \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treference to the spiritual energy \u201cdji\u201d, which she cites as a reason for the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\talleged lack of willingness to integrate: <em style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u201cRomani \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\talso believe that spiritual energy, also known as dji, can be depleted by \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tspending too much time with those outside of their community, which is another \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texplanation for why they are reluctant to assimilate.\u201d <\/em>To allege the Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ta deliberately chosen anti-social behaviour is very dangerous. It trivializes a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcenturies-old history of exclusion and persecution that is the actual reason \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfor the continued segregation of the Rroma. At the end of the article, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZimmermann rightly acknowledges that the Rroma are almost exclusively sedentary \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttoday, but often keep their identity a secret, due to continuing \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdiscrimination.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Zimmermann, Kim Ann (2014) Gypsy Culture: Customs, Traditions &amp; Beliefs. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn: <em style=\"font-family: Arial;\">LiveScience online<\/em> vom 1.4.2014. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.livescience.com\/44512-gypsy-culture.html\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">http:\/\/www.livescience.com\/44512-gypsy-culture.html<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the occasion of the 8th of April, the international Rroma day, Zimmermann (2014) discusses the history and culture of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15],"tags":[92,35,63,24,23,649,133],"class_list":["post-1344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-eastern-europe","category-news-western-europe","tag-discrimination","tag-education","tag-racism","tag-roma","tag-rroma","tag-schools","tag-stereotypes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13568,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions\/13568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}