The Gypsies (The Peoples of Europe)
by Angus Fraser
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Book Summary Information
Author: Angus FraserEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1995-03-02
ISBN: 0631196056
Number of pages: 376
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Book Reviews of The Gypsies (The Peoples of Europe)
Book Review: How the Roma Have Been Treated in Europe - With a Lot of Omissions and Wrong Theories
Summary: 3 Stars
This 1995 reprint seems to be a revised edition of the 1992 book, as it contains a picture captioned as taken in September 1993.
It is more about the treatment of "the Gypsies" in Europe for the past 5 to 6 centuries than the Gypsies as such. In some parts, such as Wallachia, they had been turned into slaves for almost 500 years. There have been genocidal laws from medieval Britain to Nazi occupied Europe, with the latter going back with their classification even one more generation of "Gypsy blood" than they did with Jews. State kidnapping (literally) was common, Hungary even prohibited marriage AMONG "Gypsies" in order to dissolve that "ethnicity". Even Switzerland took "Gypsy" kids away till 1973, Muslim "Gypsies" had to pay those non-Muslim taxes in Muslim Europe, and Prussia didn't extent her famous tolerance towards "Gypsies". In fact, even this book carries the title "The Gypsies", even though mentioning that in 1971 an international "Gypsy" conference of 14 countries adopted the name "Rom" for themselves instead.
The reason for all of this treatment is given with not being able to deal with beggars (even Christian reformist Martin Luther wanted to stamp that out), nomadic life style and in the old days that common people dared to have no masters. Which is all true. Yet, the author leaves something out: Racism. Specifically, he leaves out Anti-Egyptianism (as in ancient Egypt). Europe was and still is obsessed with eradicating as much of Egyptian knowledge, credits, history and influence on Western culture as possible. (See "all my reviews" for a number of books covering that issue.) Depriving the Rom(a) of their Egyptian heritage is only one of many of those schemes. And this book engages in this as sick. Even though it harbors a lot of the ingredients to know better.
Language: Linguists have found links to India. The author agrees with that, yet being so nice to be upfull enough as judging: "though falling well short of certainty". 500 words have been recognized as being supposedly of Indian origin. Sounds swell. Well, that happens to be the same number of Arabian words in the German language (and approximately all other West European languages), yet nobody would claim that the Germans are Arabs. He also says that ethnicity and language has been known in human history to be switchable. That the Roma have so many diverse languages and dialects that it is virtually impossible to even list them all. That there are only a few thousand words in their language. (Which one is he talking of now?) I may add: That sounds very much like a Creole language, i.e. many diverse peoples joining and having to communicate somehow. Which is known to happen on colonial islands (Natives, diverse Slaves, successive rulers, traders), in international boarding schools - and when various nomadic peoples are grouped together by sedentary society and themselves. He avers there wouldn't be any or only few Arab words in Romani. Other sources disagree, further sources say, those Arab words are largely mistaken, being ancient Egyptian in reality, from which Arab is derived. He, however, claims, historic historians have to be wrong saying, a lot of Koptic/Nubian (Lesser Egyptian) vocabulary is/was contained in Romani.
History: "there is a pall of obscurity over what was happening", referring to the unknown reason for the exodus from India. (Which by contrast is known for Egypt.) He admits that the Roma probably branched off BEFORE moving into India and that Dravidian is NOT an Indo-Aryan language. (As it has been suggested that the non-white original Indians had to flee the imposed racist caste system.) He also admits that the Indian-origin theorists are discordant about time, geographics and history, basically ANYTHING about that theory. That a 1980s TV-series in Greece with that theory caused the impressionable young Roma to adopt Indian dress and music, which might be mistaken as original in 50 years. That noble Gypsy family names, e.g. in Scotland, go back at least till the 9th century. He's even directly wondering about Gypsy presence in England and Ireland well before the advent of Gypsies in Europe. I am not kidding. I have just read a German translation of an Egyptian book ("The Ghajar"), which also believes in the Indian-origin theory, yet says the very most "Gypsies" by numbers and variations of peoples in the world still live in Egypt and surrounding countries. Angus Fraser now completely ignores the majority of "Gypsies", terming them an European people (coming from India). There are no "Gypsies" in India, at least not mentioned in any book I have read.
Music: The author avers the Roma would have taken over the national music of any country they have been to. Hmm... Curiously, he mentions always that they play the guitar, no matter wether in Rumania, Hungary, Russia, Spain. I would like to add that ancient Egyptian guitars are displayed in Western museums. But he doesn't get deterred, even mentioning that in connection with their music, they used to get called as "descendants of the Pharaos".
Religion: Roma wouldn't have any. And if, than only taken over from the respective country to get out of trouble. The reality is quite different: To get out of trouble they ADAPTED their religion to the majority religions, which in turn are DIRIVED from the ancient Egyptians' religion. The author even says that the Roma didn't take over anything such as Easter Eggs or the veneration of certain holidays, while they are venerating special saints, the official Church doesn't. Saints, which are curiously Egyptian (and not Indian I may add).
He also says that attempts of tracing skull measurements, phenotypes and blood types to anywhere in India failed. (If anybody knows any source for genetic traces to anywhere, please let me know in the comments.)
Curiously, the book lists other books in this series in preparation. Two of them - by different authors - are named "The Scots", respectively "The Picts". Which were non-white peoples to be conquered and driven into a nomadic lifestyle, to be grouped together with "Gypsies" or actually named such as in "Egyptians". Yet, Angus Fraser suggests the "Gypsies" would have come to Scandinavia from the UK and Ireland. Whereas general knowledge in that field suggests the opposite (as in PART of the non-white peoples coming from Scandinavia, the other from Egypt). For that I recommend the 1884 classic Ancient and Modern Britons: Volume One (Ancient & Modern Britons) (and Volume II) as well as Ivan Van Sertima's African Presence in Early Europe (Journal of African Civilizations). For the Egyptian origin of most of the Iberian Roma (including the Egyptian origin of the word "Rom[a]"), read Egyptian Romany: The Essence of Hispania. The latter of which also gives a fine example in what way any origin theory SHOULD be scientifically proven, not just claimed out of virtually thin air. It also explains a lot better Roma history (early Iberian), religion, music, metallurgy and language than this book does. E.g. suggesting, Ancient Egyptian would be the source of Indo-Aryan (and other) languages. The latter would explain a lot...
Summary of The Gypsies (The Peoples of Europe)
Since their unexplained appearance in Europe over nine centuries ago, the Gypsies have refused to fall in with conventional settled life. They remain a people whose culture and customs are beset with misunderstanding, and who cling to their distinct identity in the teeth of persistent rejection and pressure to conform. This book describes their history.General Books
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