Resources on Roma Culture

No, that’s not “Roman”, but “Roma” as in “Gypsy”. I’m doing some research for a story, and I need as much info as I can get on Gypsy culture, traditions, beliefs, food, etc. I understand that the Rom are only of of the many tribes/clans, but that they are also the most widespread, so I thought that would make a good place to start.

Anyone got any pointers?

There’s a book called The Gypsies by Jan Yoors. It purports to be a memoir of a Belgian guy’s travels with a Roma family. It’s a compelling read, how accurate or truthful it is, I have no idea.

First, the current spelling seems to be “Rrom”. I don’t know what that indicates, phonologically. I suggest you start here:

http://198.62.75.1/www2/gypsies.net/RemDG.html
http://www.romaniworld.com/
http://www.romnews.com/
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/patrin.htm
http://www.errc.org/

I have bad news for you, by the way. The romantic nonsense that most people “know” about the Rrom is a bunch of total crap.

That’s fine by me, I’m not after romantic myths, but hard facts.

Calling Kal!

You know, I was seriously considering naming my protagonist “Kal”. I hope he sees this and can answer a few questions for me.

That spelling (which I don’t bother with) is for two reasons mainly: To indicate a pronounciation with a rolled ‘r’ and to avoid confusion with Romania.

Damn straight.

Bibliovore: You’ve been provided with a good set of links already. One more that you may find useful is RADOC

A few books that I would recommend you getting hold of are:

We are the Romani people by Ian Hancock.

An earlier book by Hancock, The Pariah Syndrome: An account of Gypsy slavery and persecution which is now out of print but available online at the Patrin.

Gypsy Law - Romani Legal Traditions and Culture edited by Walter O. Weyrauch

The University of Hertfordshire Press (publishers of We are the Romani people) specialise in Romani titles, you’ll find more info here.

The term Roma does not specifically refer to one group, but is a cover-all term for many different groups. That’s not to say that all groups refer to themselves as Roma, btw, but all groups - be they Kalderash, Romanichal, Sinti, Manush, etc - refer to themselves by the adjective Romani.

It’s good to see that you want to concentrate on one group, though. I hate books where the author has mixed and matched different Romani cultures. It is very irritating to read a story about Romanies in Hungary where the characters wear Spanish Romani clothing, live in English Romani wagons and speak about 20 different dialects.

Feel free to drop me an email and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

Here is a page in English on Roma in the Czech Republic with a bunch of articles.

Here is a good book I read a while back “Bury Me Standing.” The amazon page also lists a few other books under ‘Customers also bought…’

Hope this helps.

-Tcat

Thanks, Kal,

I should probably point out that this is not going to be a book specifically about the Romani - it’s a work of fiction with an ethnic group who I’ve decided should be loosely based on the Romani. I suppose you could call it a fantasy, as it’s set on a fictional Renaissance-era world, although there definitely won’t be any magic!

Many of their traditions, recipies, values and laws would sound familiar to a Rom, but I’ll also be adding some influences from Arabic and Indian culture as well.

I want to get away from the stereotypes and dig into some of the reality, hence my need for hard facts. Based on the links above, it looks like I’ve got a lot of reading to do, but If I have any specific questions, I’ll be sure to drop you a line. Hope to see you at the next mini-londope in October, too.

Here’s a question - What are some typical Roma names? I guess they vary from country to country based on local culture, but if we take the Uk as an example, could we expect Roma names to be in any way distinguichable from regular english ones? Are there any surnames which are recognisably Roma?

Yes and no. There are some well known Romanichal family names; Lee, Lovell, Cooper, Smith, Stanley and so on, but most people wouldn’t automatically associate those names with Romanies unless they actually knew something about Romanies. If you know what I mean.

While I’m here, another link for you: Romany Voices - a brilliant mini-site from the BBC. Been thinking of posting that for a few months now.