May Almighty God Bless Madonna

[FaustWolf]

I wasn't sure if the nomadic lifestyle was truly culturally ingrained, forced by discrimination (I'll call this the "discrimination Ping-Pong effect"), or an interplay of the two. I couldn't really tell from the Wikipedia articles; they were kind of confusing on that issue, and it interests me.

I'm really cherrypicking here, but just to get the question out in the open so we can either shoot it down or explore it further:

“The Gypsies, seemingly immune to progress, live in an everlasting Now. . . . They are in constant motion, like the waving of branches or the flowing of water” (Yoors 5). Here Yoors depicts the Roma’s nomadic way of life as intentional and allows the Europeans to save face with regard to their treatment of the Roma. Moreover, writers like Bercovici assert that, “I am attempting to unravel the story of a people whose vocabulary lacks two words—‘duty’ and ‘possession’” (Bercovici 1). This type of romanticized description of the Roma is exactly to what Hancock was referring when he stated that these authors are simply trying to maintain the stereotypical image of the Roma.

Source: http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_k_interview_cornell_hancock_interview&lang=en&presentation=true


Again, I cherrypicked that blatantly and maybe the question is purely rhetorical since the reality of nomadic-ness is there regardless of its root cause. It seems to me that a nomadic lifestyle would give these people a comparative advantage in something, and thus lay some roots for their economic progress, and with that societal progress. Maybe salesmanship? Wandering merchants?

[Uboa]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and conjecture that the nomadic aspect of their culture is less of a hurdle than their deep-ingrained distrust of Gajo, or non-Romani.  On romani.org I found this:

http://www.romani.org/rishi/retygajo.html

That probably explains the anecdotes of their reluctance to share their culture with outsiders.  Also, much of what I've been reading on my own backs up Z's statement about the passing of cultural traditions.  They are ridiculously insular, moreso than any other culture I've read about, and as a general rule it seems the the more insular a culture is the more prone they are to waning or even backtracking in economic and social progress.  Makes me wonder if the reddit poster's suspicions about the women having quotas to fulfill for their husbands could really be the case.  Sad, if it is...

I'm not sure if I'm just waxing nostalgic for no reason here, but with FW's wondering about comparative economic advantage I was reminded again of my granddad, and how he made his living.  Apparently he had a real wandering streak, like he'd just disappear for a day or so and leave my grandma worrying.  He wasn't being unfaithful or anything, he was just wandering the town and possibly finding some of his friends and drinking.  My grandma actually called him "Hobo", and my cousins called him "Grandpa Hobo".  Anyway, he was also one of those people who had to work with his hands, and combined with his need to get out and into the open this made him an excellent construction worker.  He had a real reputation for concrete and mortar work around town, and he got a lot of independent contracting jobs.  He passed suddenly and unexpectedly, and on the day of his funeral the director of the funeral home told me that they had been planning on calling on him to put in a wheelchair ramp in a few weeks.  He's kind of a local legend now.

Perhaps I am just being needlessly nostalgic, or perhaps my granddad's life is a somewhat valid case-study.  With the kinds of tendencies he had he managed to cut out a good niche for himself in the city market.  At the same time he also felt at home and welcome where he lived.

[FaustWolf]

That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, thanks for sharing. And I suddenly realized...

Campaign field organizers! The Roma should totally be field organizers for political campaigns. They'd be great at it, because it's basically living out of your car for huge stretches at a time, wandering through every nook and cranny of various communities, pestering people and convincing them to help you, and you get paid for it.

We've got it! A giant Franky Head goes to the first European politician or party to embark on an exclusively Roma-managed election campaign.
 

[Truthordeal]

Heh, if that's true then the Jehovah's witnesses will be taking over America here shortly.