The Romani people have similar value systems and worldviews.
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Linguistic and cultural research has established that ancestors of Romani people lived in the northern part of India. Genetic research confirms that fact. Romani ancestors belonged to a Dom caste and their language came from Sanskrit and is related to modern Hindustani. Their traditional occupation was singing, dancing, music, smithing, and jeweler arts.
Some evidence of Indian heritage remains in modern Romani culture, including elements of Sanskrit grammar and vocabulary. Crafts of the Dom caste are a part of traditional Romani crafts. The concept of contamination exists with regard to proscriptions of certain foods, genital organs and certain types of crime.
The Romani people are today found in many different countries. Typically, Romani adopt given names that are common in the country of their residence, and seldom do modern Romani use traditional names from their own language, such as Papush, Luludi, Patrin, etc.
The traditional Romanies place a high value on the extended family.
Traditionally, it is a patriarchal society and virginity is considered as essential in unmarried women. Men and women often marry young, and the Romani practice of child marriage has generated controversy in many countries. In 2003, one of the many self-styled Romani "kings", Ilie Tortică, prohibited marriage before the parties were of legal age in their country of residence. A Romani patriarch, Florin Cioabă, ran afoul of Romanian authorities in late 2003 when he married off his youngest daughter, Ana-Maria, 12 [1], well below the legal marriageable age in Europe.
Bride kidnapping is a traditional Romani practice. Girls as young as twelve years old may be kidnapped for marriage to teenaged boys.[1] This practice has been reported in Ireland, England, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, and Slovakia.[2] Kidnapping has been seen as a way to avoid a bride price[3] or a way for a girl to marry a boy she wants but that her parents do not want. The tradition's normalization of kidnapping puts young women at higher risk of becoming victims of human trafficking.[4] It is important to note, however, that the practices of bride kidnapping and child marriage are not universally accepted throughout Romani culture. Some Romani women and men seek to eliminate such customs.[5]
Romani customs often establish that the groom’s family must pay a bride price to the bride's parents. Romani social behaviour is strictly regulated by purity laws ("marime" or "marhime") still respected by most Romanis and among Sinti groups by the elder generations. This regulation affects many aspects of life and is applied to actions, people, and things.
Parts of the human body are considered impure: the genital organs, because they produce impure emissions, and the lower body. Fingernails and toenails must be filed with an emery board, as cutting them with a clipper is taboo.
Clothes for the lower body, as well as the clothes of menstruating women, are washed separately. Items used for eating are also washed in a different place.
Childbirth is considered "impure" and must occur outside the dwelling place; the mother is considered "impure" for 40 days.
Death is seen as "impure" and affects the whole family of the dead, who may remain "impure" for a period after the death; also, usually private items of the dead are considered to be impured and are to be buried in his/her grave or given to non-Romani poor people.
Many of these practices are also present in Hindu cultures. However, unlike the Hindu practice of burning the dead, Romani culture requires that the dead must be buried, not burned. It is believed the soul of the deceased does not officially enter Heaven until after the burial.
The most terrible punishment for a Rom is expulsion from Romani society. An expelled person is considered to be "contaminated" and is shunned by other Romanis.
Romani Code, or Romano Zakono, is the most important part of Romanipen. It is a set of rules for Romani life.
Though different Romani ethnic groups have different sets of rules, some rules are common for all groups. Those common rules are considered to be the Romani Code, and rules that differ are called "customs". There exist proverbs about Romani Code and customs, such as:
Rules of Romani Code describe relationships inside the Romani community and set limits for customs, behavior and other aspects of life.
The Romani Code is not written; the Romani people keep it alive in oral tradition.
The kris is a traditional institution for upholding and enforcing the Romani Code.
While still in India, the Romani people followed the Hindu religion. This theory is supported by the Romani word for "cross", trushul, which is the word which describes Shiva's trident (Trishul).
Romanies often adopt the dominant religion of their host country, while preserving their particular belief systems and indigenous religion and worship. Most Eastern European Romanies are Catholic, Orthodox or Muslim. Those in Western Europe and the United States are mostly either Catholic or Protestant. Most in Latin America kept their European religion, most of them being Orthodox. In Turkey, Egypt, and the southern Balkans, they are overwhelmingly Muslim.
Since the Second World War, a growing number of Romanies have embraced Evangelical movements. For the first time, Romanies became ministers and created their own, autonomous churches and missionary organizations. In some countries, the majority of Romani now belong to the Romani churches. This unexpected change has greatly contributed to a better image of Romanies in society. The work they perform is seen as more legitimate and they have begun to obtain legal permits for commercial activities.
Evangelical Romani churches exist today in every country where Romanies are settled. The movement is particularly strong in France and Spain; there are more than one thousand Romani churches (known as "Filadelfia" or simply el culto) in Spain, with almost one hundred in Madrid alone. In Germany, the most numerous group is that of Polish Romanies, with their main church in Mannheim. Other important and numerous Romani assemblies exist in Los Angeles, Houston, Buenos Aires, and Mexico. Some groups in Romania and Chile have joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
In the Balkans, the Romanies of Macedonia and Kosovo have been particularly active in Islamic mystical brotherhoods (Sufism). Muslim Roma immigrants to Western Europe and America have brought these traditions with them.
Romanies pay much attention to philosophical questions, usually in connection with Romanipen. Many Romani folk fairy-tales, songs and proverbs which are dedicated to philosophical questions. Two Romani philosophical terms are "Romanipen" and "Gadjo".
It is customary to translate this word as "Romani spirit" or "Romani culture", but the real meaning is wider. "Romanipen" is Romani spirit, Romani essence, Romani Code and willingness to follow the Romani Code, self-perception as a member of Romani society and willingness to be such a member, set of "Romani" strains etc, all as part of the whole. Sometimes an ethnic non-Romani who has Romanipen is considered to be Romani (an adopted non-Romani child who has grown up in a Romani family). An ethnic Romani who does not have Romanipen is not considered to be Romani.
A Gadjo man or Gadji woman is a person who does not have Romanipen. Usually this is a person who is not ethnic Romani, but an ethnic Romani may be considered as a Gadjee if he/she has no Romanipen.
The lăutari who perform at traditional Romanian weddings are virtually all Roma, although their music draws from a vast variety of ethnic traditions — for example Romanian, Turkish, Jewish, and Slavic — as well as Romani traditions. Probably the most internationally prominent contemporary performer in the lăutari tradition is Taraful Haiducilor. Zdob şi Zdub, one of the most prominent rock bands in Moldova, although not Romani themselves, draw heavily on Roman music, as do Spitalul de Urgenţă in Romania.
Flamenco music and dance came from the Roma in Spain; the distinctive sound of Romani music has also strongly influenced bolero, jazz, and Cante Jondo in Europe. European-style Gypsy jazz is still widely practised among the original creators (the Romani People); one who acknowledged this artistic debt was Django Reinhardt.
Romani music is very important in Eastern European cultures such as Hungary, Russia, and Romania, and the style and performance practices of Romani musicians have influenced European classical composers such as Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms.
Many famous classical musicians, such as the Hungarian pianist Georges Cziffra, are Romani.
Romanies who came to the Americas contributed to almost every musical style.Guajira from Cuba, the tondero, zamacueca, and marinera from Peru, mariachi music from Mexico, "llanero" from the borders of Venezuela and Colombia, and even American country music have all been influenced by their morose implementation of string instruments, such as violins and guitars.
There exist four well-known Romani theatres in the world (Romen Theatre, Romance Theatre, Romanothan and Phralipe), and also many small theatres.
A stereotype that Romani people have psychic powers (e.g. fortune-teller) is still sometimes present, and some romantics attribute the invention of the Tarot cards to them.
Because of their nomadic lifestyle and differences in language and culture, Romanies and their more settled neighbours have held each other in distrust. The popular image of Romanies as tramps and thieves unfit for work contributed to their widespread persecution. This belief is often cited as the etymological source of the term gyp, meaning to "cheat", as in "I got gypped by a con man." The German name Zigeuner is often thought through popular etymology to derive either from Ziehende Gauner, which means 'travelling thieves', or from the Hungarian Cigány from their word "szegény" meaning "poor". The validity of these derivations, however, is disputed.
During the Enlightenment, Spain briefly and unsuccessfully tried to assimilate the Romanies into the mainstream population by forcing them to abandon their language and way of life; even the word gitano was made illegal. Persecution of Romanies reached a peak during World War II in the Porajmos.
There are still tensions between the Romanies and the majority population around them. Common complaints are that Romanies steal and live off social welfare and residents often reject Romani encampments. In the UK, travellers (referring to both Irish Travellers and Romanies) became a 2005 general election issue, with the leader of the Conservative Party promising to review the Human Rights Act 1998. This law, which absorbs the European Convention on Human Rights into UK primary legislation, is seen by some to permit the granting of retrospective planning permission for Romani communities. Severe population pressures and the paucity of greenfield sites have led to travellers purchasing land and setting up residential settlements almost overnight, thus subverting the planning restrictions imposed on other members of the community. Travellers argued in response that thousands of retrospective planning permissions are granted in Britain in cases involving non-Romanies applicants each year and that statistics showed that 90% of planning applications by Romanies and travellers were initially refused by local councils, compared with a national average of 20% for other applicants, disproving claims of preferential treatment favouring Gypsies. They also argued that the root of the problem was that many traditional stopping-places had been barricaded off and that legislation passed by the previous Conservative government had effectively criminalised their communities by removing local authorities’ responsibility to provide sites, thus leaving the travellers with no option but to purchase unregistered new sites themselves.[2]
Law enforcement agencies in the United States hold regular conferences on the Romanies and similar nomadic groups.
In Denmark, there was much controversy when the city of Helsingør decided to put all Romani students in special classes in its public schools. The classes were later abandoned after it was determined that they were discriminatory and the Romanies were put back in regular classes. Reference page in Danish
In Eastern Europe, Roma often live in depressed squatter communities with very high unemployment, while only some are fully integrated in the society. However, in some cases—notably the Kalderash clan in Romania, who work as traditional coppersmiths—they have prospered. Although some Roma still embrace a nomadic lifestyle, most migration is actually forced, as most communities do not accept Romani settlements.
Many countries that were formerly part of the Eastern bloc and former Yugoslavia have substantial populations of Romanies. The level of integration of Romanies into society remains limited. In these countries, they usually remain on the margins of society, living in isolated, ghetto-like settlements (see Chánov). Only a small fraction of Romani children graduate from secondary schools, though numerous official efforts have been made, past and present, to compel their attendance. Romanies frequently feel rejected by the state and the main population, creating another obstacle to their integration.
According to an article in The Guardian (January 8, 2003), in the Czech Republic, 75% of Romani children are educated in schools for people with learning difficulties and 70% are unemployed (compared with a national rate of 9%). In Hungary, 44% of Romani children are in special schools, while 74% of men and 83% of women are unemployed. In Slovakia, Romani children are 28 times more likely to be sent to a special school than non-Romani; Romani unemployment stands at 80%. [3]
In some countries, dependence on social security systems is part of the problem. For some Romanies families, it may be preferable to live on social security compared to low-paid jobs. That creates many new problems: anger against Romanies, conditions that produce crime, and extreme sensitivity to changes in social security. A good example of the latter is Slovakia, where reduction of social security (a family is paid allowance only for the first three children) led to civil disorder in several Romani villages.
In 2004, Lívia Járóka and Viktória Mohácsi of Hungary became the two current Romani Members of the European Parliament. The first Romani MEP was Juan de Dios Ramirez Heredia of Spain.
Seven former Communist Central European and Southeastern European states launched the Decade of Roma Inclusion initiative in 2005 to improve the socioeconomic conditions and status of the Romani minority.