Fragmentary coverage of Roma traditions in Romanian interwar periodicals

In: Revista de etnologie și culturologie: Journal of ethnology and culturology = Žurnal ėtnologii i kulʹturologii, Band 30, S. 109-119

Abstract

This study identifies 25 Roma traditions, fragmentarily represented in 10 texts, which were discovered by the author in Romanian interwar periodicals. Traditions are an integral part of the Roma identity (in addition to the Romani language and the Romani crafts); they are used by the Roma only in the Romani environment, in a specific historical, socio-economic and territorial context. The author conventionally divides the Roma traditions into 5 functional compartments: 1) traditions that regulate the way that Romani crafts are fulfilled; 2) traditions that regulate everyday social relations within the Romani community; 3) traditions that regulate the relations between Roma and government authorities; 4) traditions that reveal the way the Roma express themselves towards the variety of external natural and social phenomena; 5) traditions that regulate the development of the marriage ceremony among the nomadic Roma community. The main objective of this study is focused on the partial disclosure and variable description of Roma traditions, applied in a specific historical, socio-economic and territorial context, to facilitate the process of building the cultural mosaic of the Roma, which is part of the European cultural mosaic.