Gypsy story

The most common self-name of gypsies made by them from India is “rum” or “rum” from European gypsies, “home” from gypsies of the Middle East and Asia Minor, and “scrap” from gypsies of Armenia ^[1] . All these names go back to the Indo-Aryan "d'om" with the first cerebral sound ^{[to. 1] [2]} . One theory suggests that this name ultimately comes from the «mba form - “a person from a low caste who makes a living by playing songs and playing musical instruments”, attested in classical Sanskrit ^[3] . According to another version, the root “d'om” is associated with “damara” and “ damaru ”, Sanskrit terms for “drum” and Sanskrit verbal root “ḍam-” ( Sanskrit डम् ) - “sound (like a drum)”, and possibly , dates back to the Dravidian languages ^[4] . Some researchers who trace the origin of Prototsygan in India to the autochthonous Austro-Asian population of Adivasi believe that their self-name comes from the Austro-Asian root иатomba / ţumba, which, in turn, goes back to тumba with the first cerebral sound designating various plants having a large number of seeds ( pumpkin , cucumber , watermelon , fig tree , figs ), that is, considered to be prolific, and were a totem of a large group of indigenous tribes ^[5] .

The origin of the Russian name “Gypsies” as an exonym (that is, from the surrounding population) is conditionally elevated to the 9th – 11th centuries ^[6] , to the “Life of St. George of Athos ” (dated 1100, describes the events of 1054). Conventionally, as a number of historians have expressed doubts that the Attingans mentioned in the document (from the Greek “αθαγγανος”, “ατσίγγανος” - “untouchable”) mean the ancestors of modern Gypsies, and not one of the heretical sects that time. In any case, later this name was fixed as one of the common designations of European gypsies ^[7] .

A. Kozakevich . Gypsy family

The British traditionally called them Gypsies (from Egyptians - “Egyptians”), Spaniards - gitanos (also from Egiptanos - “Egyptians”), French - bohémiens (“Bohemians”, “Czechs”), gitans (distorted Spanish gitanos ) or tsiganes ( borrowing from the Greek τσιγγάνοι , scingani ), Germans - Zigeuner , Italians - zingari , Dutch - zigeuners , Hungarians - cigány or fáraók népe (“Pharaonic tribe”), Azerbaijanis - qaraçılar (“black”), Georgians - ბოშები Mingrelians - ჩაჩანეფი ( chachanefi ), Armenians - Գնչուներ ( gnchuner ), Bosch, Finns - mustalaiset ("black"), Kazakhs - dales , Syғandar , Uzbeks - Luli , Sigonlar , Basques - erro mintxela , ijitoak ; Albanians - jevgjit ("Egyptians"); Jews - צוענים (tso'anim), from the name of the biblical province of Zoan in Ancient Egypt; Persians - کولی (koli); Lithuanians - čigonai ; Latvians - čigāni ; Bulgarians - Cygani ; Estonians - mustlased (from Est. must - black) ^[8] . Currently, ethnonyms are gaining more and more distribution in various languages ​​from the self-designation of part of gypsies, Roma ( English Roma , Czech. Romové , Finnish. Romanit , etc.).

Since the Gypsies did not have a written language, no historical documents reflecting their origin were preserved. Until recently, oral family traditions retained the memory of no more than 10 generations of their ancestors ^[9] and also cannot serve as a source of knowledge about their origin ^[10] . In addition, according to M. Hubshmanova , the gypsies themselves could not identify their place of origin as India, since Hindustan was often not perceived by the peoples inhabiting it as a separate geographical region ^[10] .

In this regard, until the end of the XVIII century, various theories of the origin of Gypsies were put forward. For example, there were speculations about their descent from German Jews in the 14th century ^{[11] [12]} or the inhabitants of Atlantis ^{[13] [14]} . One of the most popular (and supported by legends circulated by the gypsies themselves) was the theory of the Egyptian origin of gypsies ^[7] . Moreover, individual authors expressed assumptions about their origin directly from the ancient Egyptians ^[15] . Other authors believed that the Gypsies passed through Egypt during their migrations from India ^[16] , or, conversely, when migrating from Egypt, came to India ^[17] .

Another common theory suggested the origin of Gypsies from Asia Minor ^[7] , in particular, they were associated with the descendants of the inhabitants of the city of Sinjar in Mesopotamia ^[18] or the descendants of the Sigin tribe mentioned in Herodotus , Strabo , Pseudo-Orpheus and Apollonius of Rhodes ^{[19] [20] [21] [22]} . A significant number of authors, one way or another, associated Gypsies with the Atigans mentioned in Byzantium ^{[7] [23]} , either directly identifying them as Gypsies ^[24] , or believing that only the name was transferred from Attingans to Gypsies ^{[25 ]} . Some authors have denied a connection between Roma and Attigans ^[26] .

It is interesting that until the 18th century, at least two references to the Indian origin of Gypsies were found in the annals of the Italian city of Forlì for the year 1422 ( lat. Aliqui dicebant, quod erant de India - “some said they were from India”) ^{[27 ]} , as well as in a Jewish document known as the “Chronicle of Peace,” which states that the Spanish king Philip III in 1602 “expelled all Kushim ^{[c. 2]} who lived in his kingdom so that they would go to their land, to India, to the place where they were born, to their ancient land ” ^[28] . But both messages, most likely, were random guesses and did not have a scientific basis ^[10] .

The Indian origin of the ancestors of the gypsies was established at the end of the XVIII century ^{[8] [10]} . Since the Gypsies did not keep historical chronicles and did not retain the oral traditions of their history, most of the hypotheses about the early history of Gypsies and their ancestors were based on linguistic studies ^[10] , to which genetic methods have been added in recent decades ^[29] . It is generally accepted that the ancestors of the Gypsies came from the northwestern regions of India (the modern Indian states of Gujarat , Rajasthan and Kashmir ). According to the data of genetic studies, they isolated ^{[to. 3]} from other peoples of the Indo-Aryan language group around the 5th century AD ^[29] .

The results of linguistic studies carried out in the 1920s by the prominent linguist R. L. Turner , which are shared by linguistic romologists J. Mattress , J. Hancock andMV Smirnova-Seslavinskaya , show that the ancestors of the Gypsies formed in the central regions of India in about the 3rd century BC. e. and a few centuries before the outcome (no later than the end of the 5th century AD) they migrated to Northern Punjab ^[30] .

The issue of ethnic and social affiliation of Roma ancestors in Indian society remains unclear. According to one hypothesis, based on the consonance of self-names, the ancestors of the Gypsies (“protors”) were representatives of the ethnosocial group “d'om / d'omba”, who lived in the central and northwestern regions of India from the 5th – 4th centuries BC e and later formed into one of the most numerous castes of the untouchable “ house ” ^{[k. 4]} . The results of genetic studies published in 2012 confirm this hypothesis ^[31] Some researchers ^{[32] [33]} suggest that the houses were originally native speakers of one of the Austro-Asian languages (that is, they were representatives of the autochthonous population of Adivasi , close to the Mund peoples), adopting the Indo-Aryan language later from their neighbors, but retaining their self-name. The main counterargument against this hypothesis is the lack of anthropological and cultural similarities between modern Indian houses and European gypsies.

Currently, there are several nomadic tribes and lower castes in India who have similar cultural characteristics to the gypsies and are sometimes considered to be related to the ancestors of the gypsies: nates (acrobats), luti, banjars (nomad merchants), lohars (nomad blacksmiths ) ^[7] , sappers ( snake charmers ), mirasi (family bards-chroniclers), badi (musicians), bihari (circus performers) ^[10] . At the same time, this similarity is considered to be purely external and the term “gypsy-like tribes” or “gypsy-like castes” is used in relation to these groups ^{[7] [34]} ( eng. Gypsy-tribe ). According to genetic studies published in 2012, gypsies have the greatest genetic similarity with isolated peoples living in northwestern and northern India: megawales in the state of Rajasthan and Kashmiri pandits in the state of Jammu and Kashmir ^[29] .

At present, it is not known exactly when and for what reason the gypsies left India ^[10] . It is possible that their outcome was caused by several factors at once ^[35] .

Genetic studies have proven that Gypsies left India in a small, genetically homogeneous group ^{[29] [36]} , estimated to number about 1000 people ( Haplogroup H ). There is a Persian legend (recorded by Firdousi ) that gypsies came to Iran from India under Bahram Gur , who was subdued by their musical art ^[37] .

It is generally accepted that the first mention of gypsies in Byzantium dates back to 1054 , which is recorded in the Life of St. George . According to the source, the Sarmatians-Atsingans helped the emperor Konstantin Monomakh to exterminate wild animals ^[38] . They came to Byzantium through the territory of Iran and Armenia - their stay in these territories was reflected in the gypsy language ^[39] . On the island of Crete, gypsies ( atsingani ) have been known since 1322 . In Byzantium, the gypsies were famous for their blacksmithing ^[40] .

In the 14th century, gypsies spread throughout the Balkan Peninsula. In 1348 they were noticed in Serbia , and in 1378 in Bulgaria ^[41] . In 1411, a gypsy camp was spotted in the Czech Republic ( Bohemia ) ^[42] . In 1417, the Gypsies first appeared in Transylvania ^[43] , and by 1431 they reached France (Tournai), and there they were considered immigrants from Bohemia (gypsies - bohémiens ). In 1433, one of the groups of gypsies was spotted in the region of the German city of Regensburg . In 1500 they reach Scotland , and in 1513 - Sweden . In 1530, the first anti-Gypsy decrees were adopted in England due to practicing palmistry ^[44] . To date, 10 million gypsies live in the EU ^[45] .

Gypsies have been recorded in America (the Caribbean ) since 1539 , where they come from Spain and Portugal. Some gypsies took part in the slave trade. But the mass migration of gypsies to America begins only in the second half of the 19th century ^[46] . By the 21st century, the total number of gypsies in America has reached 4 million, of which 1 million live in the United States ^[47] .

Comments

Sources

• Цыгане // Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона : в 86 т. (82 т. и 4 доп.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Смирнова-Сеславинская М. В. , Цветков Г. Н. Цыгане. Происхождение и культура. Социально-антропологическое исследование. M .; София. 2009.
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