Serbian Gypsies Research Articles

Zlatanović S. Etnička identifikacija na posleratnom području: Srpska zajednica jugoistočnog Kosova. Beograd: Etnografski institut SANU: Čigoja štampa, 2018. 364 s. (Posebna izdanja; knj. 89)

Sanja Zlatanović’s book Etnička identifikacija na posleratnom području: Srpska zajednica jugoistočnog Kosova (Ethnicity in a Post-War Region: The Serbian Community of Southeast Kosovo) provides a valuable picture of the Serbian community of Kosovsko Pomoravlje (South-East Kosovo around Gnilane) during the first years of international rule in the disputed area. The book is based on field research carried out between 2003 and 2006 both in the area and in Southern Serbia with persons displaced from the area. S. Zlatanović describes the subdivisions between “Kosovo old-dwellers” and “Colonists” (of 1920s and 30s); between Serbs and Serbian Gypsies in Kosovo; and between KosovoSerbs and the population of Central Serbia. She also demonstrates the complexity of the Kosovo Serb perception of their neighbours – Kosovo Croats and Kosovo Albanians. The author reviews both the efficiency and limits of the komšiluk (traditional practice of neighbourhood solidarity), cultural similarities with the Kosovo Albanians, and the role of the Raška-Prizren Diocese of the Serb Orthodox Church and its influence upon the community, e. g., by the overcoming of traditional practices of religious syncretism. This ethnological study will be of use both for ethnologists and social anthropologists of the Balkans, as well as for historians and political scientists. The Kosovo Serb identity, their internal subdivisions, and the cultural stereotypes described by S. Zlatanović will exist as a part of the broader Serbian social texture for the foreseeable future.

Approaching preferred identity: ‘Serbian Gypsies’ in post-war Kosovo

The article examines the processes of approaching preferred identity of the ‘Serbian Gypsies’ community in post-war Kosovo. The ‘Serbian Gypsies’ declare themselves as Serbs and have Serbian names and surnames. They are Orthodox Christians and speak Serbian within the community. Their practice of customs and way of life are also similar to those of the Serbs, according to descriptions received from the Serbs. To varying degrees, the Serbs within their community dispute their acquired ethnic identity, continuing to ascribe to them the identity of ‘Gypsies’. Depending on the individual views of members of the Serbian community, they are placed both as intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic others, or “betwixt and between” these categories. The boundary between these two communities is an ambiguous zone of negotiation. In a post-war context of radically changed ethnic and social circumstances, the Serbs, now finding themselves in the minority enclave situation, are gradually beginning to accept this group, which is working on remodelling its identity and becoming assimilated. The identity of the ‘Serbian Gypsies’ is still in the process of being shaped and re-shaped and limited by being categorised by the group, where they hope to become members.

Serbian Gypsy Witch Narratives: ‘Wherever Gypsies Go, There the Witches Are, We Know!’

A salient characteristic of the Serbian Gypsies' demography is an unusually high percentage of infant and child mortality. This paper discusses the narration of Serbian Gypsy women who have lost at least one child to ‘the deadly doings of witches’. These narratives serve to communicate the mother's innocence before the local community, as a means of justification of the unfortunate event. The mother's kinship group's endorsement of such talk includes the communicative acceptance of the supernatural accusation or claim. Because the actual evidence is irrelevant, by such acceptance the kinship group uniquely communicates its willingness to support and cooperate with the narrator. The narratives thus seem to be aimed at encouraging particular social behaviour: cooperation among kin.

Juvenile marriages, child-brides and infant mortality among Serbian gypsies

Gypsies/Roma make up the largest minority in Europe. Roma communities tend to be segregated and characterized by poverty, unemployment, poor education, and poor quality housing. So far, the European strategy for Gypsy/Roma integration proved insufficient because it fails to account to the normative nature of the isolationist and ethnocentric nature of certain elements of Gypsy culture, as well as the deep and mutual distrust between Gypsies and non-Gypsies within European countries. In Serbia, the Gypsy population tends to suffer disproportionately from higher rates of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, and disease. At the same time, the Serbian Gypsy women average an infant mortality rate between 10-20%. For most of these girls/women, endogamous, arranged marriages are negotiated at an early age, usually without their consent. Among these women, a certain level of infant mortality is “expected”, following an underinvestment in some children manifested in their care, feeding, and the response to their illnesses. These juvenile arranged marriages, subsequent reproduction and child mortality are culturally self-sufficient and hence pose a challenge for international human rights: while many Gypsy girls/women are being denied the right to choose whom and when to marry, the Gypsy community itself openly accepts juvenile arranged marriage as a preservation strategy and means of cultural, economic, and societal maintenance and independence. Although efforts to improve education, health, living conditions, encourage employment and development opportunities for Gypsies/Roma are essential, these objectives cannot be attained without directing the changes needed within Gypsy/Roma culture itself. The initial point for change must come from an increased sense of responsibility among the Gypsies themselves.

Čvorović, Jelena: Roast Chicken and Other Gypsy Stories. Oral Narratives among Serbian Gypsies

Anthropos , Seite 648 - 649

What Makes Them Tick. The Social Significance of Serbian Gypsy Oral Tradition

Pour les gitans serbes, raconter et ecouter des contes sont des comportements traditionnels importants, partages et transmis dans la parente, generation apres generation. Cet article etudie deux contes traditionnels racontes par des gitans serbes: Lena - la perte d'une riviere et Coupe, coupe ses mains. A travers l'examen du contenu des contes et du milieu social dans lequel ils sont racontes, il est demontre que ces contes illustrent de quelle maniere des contes oraux peuvent traiter de problemes universels d'adaptation tout en offrant des directives pour surmonter ces problemes dans des environnements nouveaux et uniques.

Serbian Gypsy Narrative: Between Preferred and True Identity

This paper discusses the narration of a Serbian Gypsy who adopted Serbian ethnic identity. Still today in Serbia, Gypsy culture remains in the oral form. Their narratives tell as much about their present as about their past. Several themes underlying the discussion about Gypsy ethnic flexibility are explored: their position in relation to non-Gypsies, the way they perceive it; varying attitudes about ethnicity within Gypsy communities in contrast with personal experiences of a Gypsy who adopted Serbian identity; and the evolving nature of Gypsy identities.

A Gypsy, a Butterfly, and a Gadje: Narrative as Instruction for Behaviour

Serbian Gypsy narratives have a very important function in Gypsy culture—that of shaping and influencing the behaviour of those to whom the stories are told. This paper analyses two Serbian Gypsy oral narratives that place special emphasis on the kinds of behaviour that are encouraged or discouraged in everyday life, and which have presumably helped Gypsies to survive through the centuries.

Gypsy dragon: An evolutionary approach to narratives

This paper will attempt to explain Serbian Gypsy oral narratives by applying concepts drawn from evolutionary psychology. The Gypsy story will illustrate how various narrative characteristics are used by Gypsies to employ social knowledge on local surroundings to better serve fitness solutions.

Djorgovci: An ambivalent identity

On the territory of ex-Yugoslavia numerous Romani groups, with special ethnic and cultural characteristics, have formed. One of them is the Djorgovci, mentioned only sporadically in ethnographic literature as a specific group of Orthodox Gypsies who speak the Serbian language and live in south Serbia (around the town of Vranje), Kosovo and Macedonia. This paper is based on field research conducted during 2004 in the village of Golemo Selo near Vranje and its aim is to sketch a portrait of the Djorgovci—a community with an ambivalent identity.The Djorgovci are linked to the majority group of the Serbs by ‘objective’ cultural traits: religion, language and customs, but the cultural and ethnic boundaries do not necessarily overlap. The differences between the two groups are obvious in the models of conceiving and organising existence and in their subjective belief that they represent different groups. While Djorgovci are connected with the Serbians by cultural identification, they are linked to the Roma living in south Serbia (who speak Romani and are mainly Muslim) by their ethnic origin (we can also add here perceptive indicators which, although always undetermined, have a bearing on identification). The ethnic and cultural schism in the identity of the Djorgovci places them in the realm of liminality, ‘betwixt and between’ clearly determined, socially acknowledged ethnic categories, so they are doubly included and doubly excluded. In the existing ethnic classification they are striving to find their place by conjoining both poles of their identity, so they are ‘both–and’ (We are Serbian Gypsies) or, by denial and self-contempt, ‘neither–nor’ (We aren’t Gypsies, we aren’t Serbs, we’re nobody). In the rural milieu of south Serbia, where identity or its aspects are not a matter of choice, the Djorgovci are floating between two ‘deeply-rooted’ and mutually exclusive identities, and are being marginalised by representatives of both.

Gypsies Drown in Shallow Water: Oral Narratives among Macva Gypsies

The continuance of oral traditions and storytelling is one of the most significant mechanisms in the preservation and constitution of generations of young Serbian Gypsies as separate ethnic/tribal groups. Traditional stories are repeated, consciously or unconsciously, because of their particular influence on behavior. The majority of the Gypsy traditional stories concern the most important, unpredictable, and potentially dangerous aspect of the Gypsy ancestral environment: other humans. This paper studies not only the effect of traditional stories on behavior, but also the stories told and shared by individuals who claim to share common ancestry. The stories teach young Gypsies fundamental values of the group and promote endogamous traditional marriage patterns, thereby strengthening group identity in an often-hostile environment.

Sexual and Reproductive Strategies Among Serbian Gypsies

This paper deals with a full range of sexual and reproductive behaviors among different “tribes” of Gypsies in Serbia. The examined traits include rates of fertility, mortality, age distribution, education, crime rates, and parental care. In addition, Gypsy traditions of culturally prescribed sexual behavior are also studied. It is found that Gypsy tribes employ different reproductive strategies, ranging from an extreme, for humans, “r” (reproductive) strategy to a more typical “K” (parental) strategy. The reasons bringing about these differences come from the Gypsies' readiness to adjust their behavior and reproduction in order to create the most favorable strategy in a given environment. This paper elucidates and contrasts the more typical r-selected Gypsies with a group of K-selected Gypsies living in a Serbian village.

Reproductive behavior, ethnicity and socio-economic status a comparison of two Serbian Gypsy groups

Based on original fieldwork in Serbia, this paper elucidates and contrasts the reproductive behavior of typically poor Gypsies with a group of much wealthier Gypsies living in a Serbian village. This paper will test two hypotheses: 1) Gypsy reproductive behavior is a result of their ethnic traditional strategy, and/or 2) Gypsy reproduction is a result of low status and being poor. This paper explores the relationship between socioeconomic status, reproductive behavior and ethnicity.

Research Items

Christmas and New Year Among Serbian Gypsies

Research Items

PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF SERBIAN GYPSIES.-Dr. Viktor Lebzelter has recorded in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, Ser. 3, vol. 3, Pt. 4, the results of anthropometric observations made in 1916 on forty-five Serbian gypsies who were prisoners of war. Gjargjevic has classified the gypsies of Serbia into three strata, of which the first and third are Moslems and the second Christian-Rumanian gypsies who with the other Rumanian inhabitants of Serbia entered the country in the seventeenth century. The subjects of Dr. Lebzelter's observations belonged to the Christian stratum, though only seven called themselves Rumanian gypsies. They came from northwest Serbia and all were sedentary. They were remarkably homogeneous. Their hair was thick, and smooth like that of Hungarian and Bosnian gypsies. In the majority of cases it was black, but ranged to light brown. The colour of the iris in eighteen cases was dark brown, but black-brown, brown, greenish-grey, brownish-grey, and greenish-brown also occurred. The average height was 1627 mm.; 24 per cent, were tall or very tall. The cephalic index ranged from 72.49 to 88.76, the average being 78.3. From an analysis of published measurements of Balkan gypsies, 952 individuals, Dr. Lebzelter concludes that the original type is dark, smooth-haired, moderately short, mesocephalic, moderately hypsicephalic, lepto-rhine, and perhaps leptoproscopic. The Serbian gypsies show this original element more clearly than the Hungarian gypsies.