My latest research into the origins of the Gypsies started with a post at Transpontine’s South East London Blog, where I learned a little bit of South London Gyspy history, along with the fact that over in the UK, June has actually been Gypsy Traveller Roma History Month. Back on Transpontine’s blog, there was some discussion about the origins of the Gypsies, in terms of both time and place. I participated, but a little late in the game, to the effect that I was probably at that point only talking to myself. However, in the process, I got some very nice and succinct history of the Gypsies over at a Rajasthani tourism page. Here it tells us that:
Before they left India, little is known about the culture which generated the Gypsies, except for their migrations, within and out of India. Linguistics and historians believe that the Gypsies were originally from North Central India. Their first known migration started around 300 BC, when they moved to North Western India. The Persian Book of Kings relates an incident corroborated by independent chronicles that took place in the fifth century, when the Indian King Shankal made a gift of 12.000 musicians to the Shah of Persia. It is assumed that those musicians were the ancestors of the Roma since after a year the Shah sent them away from Persia.
Why and when, then, the Roma left India is clouded in uncertainty, yet some scholars state that the Gypsies entered southeastern Europe in the last quarter of the 13th Century. Because they arrived in Europe from the East, they were thought by the first Europeans to be from Turkey, Nubia or Egypt, or any number of non-European places. They were called, among other things, Egyptians or ‘Gyptians, which is where the word “Gypsy” comes from. All analysis seem to corroborate the fact that the Roma ancestors are linked to this common lineage in India. As well, the Roma have been known as entertainers and inspired musicians in every country they have traveled, as some of the nomadic groups present in the Thar Desert today.
The page then goes on to describe several tribes of Rajasthani Gypsies, which is very interesting information that I haven’t seen before.
One of those tribes is the Kalbeliya, or “snake charmer caste.”
And it just so happens that are a lot of very nice current-day Kalbeliya dance clips available. Here’s one with a song that I’ve known well for over a decade, because it was on Musafir’s Gypsies of Rajasthan LP:
That Rajasthani tourism page information was very interesting.
I remember in college one of my cultural anthropology professors was doing a study on the gypsies. In particular I remember her making a comment that when the gypsies made their yearly migration through Rochester, MN, that the major department store there (called Dayton’s at the time) had to increase security due to the increased shoplifting. I always pictured the gypsies in the upscale store not only shoplifting but also stealing form the fancy medical tourists who come to the Mayo clinic in Rochester. Like some fancy Shah being pick pocketed while looking at cufflinks in a display case. I’ve only encountered gypsies in Europe, those “gitan” kids holding the cardboard signs up to your face while their little urchin friend tries to pick pocket you.
I like this one best:
Here’s another:
That’s very funny – I thought of posting the same song myself!!
That’s not the first time that I’ve thought of posting Cher clips either. My mind went back to Cher the times when I delved into Shaa’ir + Func, because Shaa’ir definitely has some 1960s or early ’70s Cher in her (when she’s not channeling ’70s Patti Smith). That really comes out in some interview footage I saw, but I also thought it showed a little in one of the song clips I posted a while back:
http://roughinhere.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/shaair-func-oops/
I might even be a little of a closet Cher fan (might have something to do with the time when I grew up. ;)
But back to the gypsies… (Oh, and by the way, after much vacillation, the proofreader in me has decided that the “g” definitely should be lower case…)
I like that scenario about the gypsies picking the pockets of rich medical tourists!
I’ve seen gypsies plenty of times in New York, but only in relation to commercial ventures associated with them, like fortune telling and that sort of thing, and probably sometimes they’re just faking the gypsy part in order to push the business. It’s true, the gypsies don’t seem to be that visible a presence outside of that context here in the U.S.
wow you are both incredibly racist. this is appalling.
I just typed a long(er) answer to this interesting comment on this very old post, but I accidentally deleted it. Maybe that’s an indication that I should not spend so much time and energy on this.
KR, I am assuming that you are not a spammer or troller and are writing with genuine concern.
If this is the case, I am sorry if some of our humor in the comments to this post offended your sensibilities. But if you find something here racist – and I assume it would be the comments here that you find racist, certainly not the post – then it would be more appropriate to say “these comments are racist,” not “you are incredibly racist.” Because, as far as I can tell, you don’t know much about me or my longtime blogging friend Sitaji, nor have you put much effort into reading our blogs. :)
Anyway, I hope that my crossing over the line into political incorrectness would not stop you from, hypothetically, joining me in struggle against some of the real, serious forces and sources of oppression in this world.
And by the way, when I said that “I like that scenario about the gypsies picking the pockets of rich medical tourists,” it was not a negative comment on gypsies, because I like the idea of anyone picking the pockets of rich medical tourists!