The time of the gypsies / Michael Stewart. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stewart, Michael, 1959-

Series:

Studies in the ethnographic imagination

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Romanies--Hungary.

Romanies.

Romanies--Hungary--Social life and customs.

Romanies--Hungary--Ethnic identity.

Hungary--Ethnic relations.

Hungary.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 302 p. ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1997.

Summary:

"Until 1989 it was official Communist policy in eastern Europe to absorb Gypsies into the "ruling" working class. But many Gypsies fought to maintain their separate identity. This book is about the refusal of one group of Gypsies - the Rom - to abandon their way of life and accept assimilation into the majority population. It is a story about the sources of cultural diversity in modern industrial society and about the fear and hatred that such social and cultural difference many give rise to. The core of the book, based on eighteen months of observation of daily life in a Gypsy settlement, describes the cultivation, celebration, and reinvention of cultural difference and diversity by a people deemed by their social superiors to be too stupid and uncivilized to have a "culture" at all." "The survival of the Gypsy way of life remains one of the great puzzles of modern European history. How has this despised and feared people protected itself through five hundred years of persecution? The Time of the Gypsies evokes the rhythms of the Gypsies' daily lives and leads the reader to the clues that unlock the secrets of Gypsy survival."--Jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: The lowest of the low

pt. 1. The gypsy way. Gypsy work

A place of their own

"We are all brothers here"

Breaking out

pt. 2. Beyond the ghetto. Making workers out of gypsies

Gazos, peasants, communists, and gypsies

Staying gypsy in a world of gazos

pt. 3. The reinvention of the world. Sons of the market

A passion for dealing

Brothers in song

The shame of the body

Conclusion: Marginality, resistance, and ideology.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-429-97543-0