The Traveller-Gypsies

Abstract

In this book Judith Okely challenges popular accounts of Gypsies which suggest that they were once isolated communities, enjoying an autonomous culture and economy now largely eroded by the processes of industrialisation and western capitalism. Dr Okely draws on her own extensive fieldwork and on contemporary documents. The Traveller-Gypsies is the first monograph to be published on Gypsies in Britain using the perspective of social anthropology. It examines the historical origins of the Gypsies, their economy, travelling patterns, self-ascription, kinship and political groupings, and their marriage choices, upbringing and gender divisions. A detailed analysis of pollution beliefs reveals an underlying system which expresses and reinforces the separation of Gypsies from non-Gypsies. Explanations for beliefs are sought in their contemporary meaning as opposed to their alleged Indian origin. None of these aspects are analysed independently of the wider society, its policies, beliefs, and practices. This book will be invaluable for teaching purposes, both as a study of a Gypsy community per se, and for its discussion of the problems involved in carrying out fieldwork within the anthropologist's own society. It will also interest the general reader and the academic specialist; social anthropologists, sociologists, historians, geographers, planners and all those concerned with minority groups.

A qualitative study of the health experience of Gypsy Travellers in the UK with a focus on terminal illness

“…Data collection focused on the experience of terminal illness as related by family/ community members with no attempt to recruit individuals in the terminal stages of illness. The literature on Gypsy Travellers indicate strict gender-defined boundaries and as the author undertaking the fieldwork was female (EJ), only female Gypsy Travellers were interviewed on this sensitive issue, thereby respecting Gypsy Travellers' cultural norms 14 . This was confirmed during the study in the on-line discussion.…”

Some Social and Regional Lessons of a Complex Roma Integration Programme (Case Study from a Hungarian Rural Area)

“…ese papers applied the perspectives of social anthropology, examining the historical origins, economy and travelling patterns as well (Okely 1983;Stewart 1997). A er the turn of the millennium, larger-scale works, in addition to explaining the age-old predicament of Gypsies and their relationship to the region's states and societies, comparatively examined the Gypsies' socio-economic and political marginality and the policies toward them through seven centuries and in seven Eastern European states.…”

Between Exoticization and Marginalization. Current Problems of Gypsy Studies

“…It is worth noting that in both cases, the research results more or less follow the controversial and often criticized theory of Western anthropology first proposed by the English anthropologist Judith Okely and developed by her followers. According to this theory, Gypsies are not an ethnic community the ancestors of whom migrated from India, but their origin is based on an agglomerate of various marginal sections of the European population (agglomerate of people who were cast out of society during the industrial revolution) (Okely 1983;Lucassen et al 1998;Willems 1998). In other words, nowadays we have reached a point on which the policy and policy servicing research in time of communist rule focused -the denial of the ethnic dimensions of the Gypsies, a point that was meant as a first step towards assimilation of Gypsies to "mainstream" culture.…”

“…In recent years, several otherwise important studies were published also as a result of their authors' ambitions to open new theoretical horizons. In them we find claims to offer a new perspective concerning Gypsies as such, including Okely's theory concerning the alleged non-Indian origin of Gypsies (Okely 1983), Stewart's concept of "brotherhood" among the Gypsies (Stewart 1997), Lemon's theory of Gypsy identity as a form of "performance" (Lemon 1999) or Streck's definition of Gypsy culture as a "contrasting" one (Streck 2003). We will not enter here in a discussion concerning the scientific soundness and the relevance of these concepts to the real situation, in which we can discover both reasonable elements and misleading generalisations.…”