Abstract
We compared housing and the eating habits of Roma. Contemporary findings (2013) were compared with those from the first monothematic work on Roma (1775), which depicts their housing and eating habits, especially regarding the differences between social classes. Data were obtained from a journal (1775) and from semi-structured interviews (2013) with more than 70 Roma women and men who live in segregated and excluded settlements at the edges of villages or scattered among the majority. Data were collected in two villages and one district town in the Tatra region, where the data from the 1775 measurements originated. We used classical sociological theory to interpret the obtained data. The main findings showed differences between specific social classes then and now regarding housing, as well as the eating habits related to both conditions among the Roma in the Tatra region. The houses of rich Roma families did not differ from the houses of the majority population. The huts of the poorest inhabitants of settlements did not meet any hygiene standards. Typical Roma foods such as gója or marikľa were the traditional foods of Slovak peasants living in poverty in the country. We concluded that the housing and eating habits of the citizens of poor settlements located in the eastern parts of Slovakia are still similar to those of two centuries ago. The existing social exclusion may be explained partly from this finding.
Highlights
A general picture of the development of public health and its understanding is known [1,2,3].the more than 200-year development in hard to reach groups is generally not very well known
We focused on two issues related to health, i.e., the housing and eating habits of the Roma, and studied them from an anthropological and historical perspective
We considered it very important that the informants were able to express themselves in their own words, by literal depictions—translated by the authors—of their everyday reality
Summary
A general picture of the development of public health and its understanding is known [1,2,3].the more than 200-year development in hard to reach groups is generally not very well known. A general picture of the development of public health and its understanding is known [1,2,3]. The topic of Roma health has come into the spotlight [5,6,7,8], sometimes showing what was already known and sometimes coming up with new findings. We focused on two issues related to health, i.e., the housing and eating habits of the Roma, and studied them from an anthropological and historical perspective. Evidence among these topics in this group is lacking
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