The Rom Sociology

The Rom
People of Purity
People of Pollution

By
A. Hertzberg

Anthropology 310
Tuesday – Thursday 11 am
Professor Hertzberg
Spring 2005 The Rom: People of Purity, People of Pollution

Table of Contents

Topic Page
Introduction 2
Purity and Pollution 5
Analysis and Conclusion 11
Works Cited
12
End Notes 13
Introduction

There have been many groups in world history who have existed as a small group living among a larger group; yet sustaining a completely separate and unique culture from the larger group.
The Gypsies or Rom are such a group. The Rom probably originated in Indiai , however, most of them left India between 400-1000 A.D. When they left India, a large number of them traveled to Egypt, where the Egyptians generally accepted them. The Rom were said to have acquired the name “Gypsy” because of their stay in Egypt. About 1200 AD the Egyptians no longer accepted them as they had originally; that is when the Rom began traveling throughout Eastern Europe and later the rest of the world.
Today the Rom can be found in almost all corners of the earth. They operate within other cultures, but always keep themselves in separate identifiable neighborhoods, or move as a group from place to place, physically isolating themselves wherever they stop. The population size of the Rom today is not definite due to their nomadic and separate nature. “It has been estimated that there are between 1 million and 6 million Gypsies around the world.” (Gropper
434)
Their language is a patois of Sanskrit, Romanian-Hungarian, Spanish and Slavic and is called Romany. Romany is also the word, which is often used to identify the group, as Rom technically only refers to males and Romni to females. The Romany refer to themselves collectively as Rom and so I shall do so in this paper. In addition to the Romany language, the Rom have an elaborate system of codes and hand signs which they use to supplement and or hide their communication when in the presence of outsiders.
The Rom are divided into four clans called natsiyi (sing.
natsia). These are, in order of social status (higher to lower), the Machwaya, Lowara, Kalderasha, and the Churara. They have a band type society and are typically nomadic, living in communities or kumpaniyi (sing. kumpania). The kumpania is the most important economic group in Romany society. Each kumpania is made up of family units or familiyi. Each large extended family (familia) is headed by the eldest functioning adult. “…together elders make social, economic, and moral, decisions for the kumpania.” (Sutherland 11) These tight-knit groups are the primary support systems of each Rom
group.
The Rom Baro (big man), or leader controls the family, and he also has some authority over other families in the kumpania. The Baro also represents his group to outside agencies and officials. Among the older Rom, learned men have primary influence in political and jurisdictional matters for the group. The kris Romany (Romany trial), in which the strongest Baro of the area is the judge, judges people who are accused of violating the group’s moral and social laws.
Romany children seldom attend schools unless forced to by outside authorities. Young children are educated by the clan as a whole, with older women having primary responsibility. When children reach puberty, they are divided by gender. Males are usually apprenticed to a male family member to be taught a skill. Females are put under the control of their mothers and aunts. Women are believed to have greater contact with and control of the supernatural, so young women will be taught healing, giving and removing curses and possibly fortune telling.
Romany people value metal work as a profession and as an art form. Blacksmithing, iron mongering, auto mechanics and metal sculpture are common professions. Music, dance, public oratory and story telling are other important artistic activities, but are usually considered as things people do in their spare time.
The Rom believe in an all-powerful god (o Del), a devil (Beng), spirits of the dead (Mule), and celebrate a Saint 's Day Feast (Slava). In Romany society, the old women have the most knowledge of the supernatural. They have the ability to place the most serious curses on someone and are best able to defend threats to themselves or their group.
Much of their ritual activity is based upon ideas of pollution or uncleanliness (marhime). Marhime is a broad concept (meaning both pollution and rejection from the society), which is an effective form of coercion among the Rom.
Marhime, it 's opposite concept wuzho (purity), and a third, intermediary concept of dirt, melalo, form the basis of a whole system of related categories which include social boundaries and status, body symbolism, sex, age, health, luck, and supernatural beings. This symbolic system has an enduring quality and may be the key to Rom survival as a group. (Sutherland 13)
My paper will focus on the concept of marhime and its role in helping Romany people to maintain their separate cultural identity. The balance of purity and pollution help to maintain order among the Rom and to distinguish them from the outside world.
Purity and Pollution

Pollution ideas are the core of a system of beliefs that give order to the moral universe of the Rom. Pollution beliefs are formally exemplified in ritual custom. All Romany share a common tradition of: “…washing practices, of commensality ritualii, of taboos that incur rejection or sanction (marhime) and attendant patterns of belief.” (Sutherland 256) These beliefs are a constant concern for the Rom.
The term marhime is used in two ways by the Rom. "Marhime is to them both pollution and rejection. To say a person is marhime means that he is rejected, as an unclean area or object is rejected." (Sutherland 256) The term has three anthropological implications. First, it is a form of social control. Secondly, it is the basis of a gender-status system. Thirdly, it is an instrumental designation of life cycle changes and age-status.
The Rom have many specific rituals, which rise from the ideas of marhime. For example: the upper body is considered wuzho and the lower section of the body is marhime. The Rom protect themselves from marhime in many ways. One important way that the Rom keep themselves wuzho is by keeping wuzho things from ever touching or coming in contact with marhime things. Washing is done in a very particular way; and if it is not done appropriately, they are in danger of marhime. Here is one story, told by Jan Yoors, of a Lowara woman named Tshaya and her anger at the actions of a young Tshurara (Churara) girl:
Suddenly, from the distant river edge Tshaya 's voice was heard scolding on and on....It appeared that Tshaya had surprised the little Tshurara girl drawing water from the river without properly observing the rules of ujo and marhime, and to the Lowara this was a serious offense. Along the riverbank, five points were roughly designated for drawing water. Water for drinking and cooking was to be taken farthest upstream; next came the water for horses, for the washing of clothes, and last for the clothes of pregnant or menstruating women. Separate buckets were to be used to fetch water for each particular use. (Yoors 150)
Women are seen as a contaminate threat because of menstruation and pregnancy. This gender difference actually gives women an extremely powerful tool against any threat, within the Romany culture. Women make anything marhime which comes in contact with her lower body. Her skirt can thus become a powerful weapon and skirt tossing is a substantial threat.
Skirt-tossing creates a scandal that focuses gossip upon disputes and inequities….If a man is accused of skirt tossing; it is a very serious event. When news reaches the community, the man is ostracized. It is traditionally his response to call the court together that will help him clear his name. If he is found guilty, the court recommends public apology, the payment of a fine, or a period of isolation. If he complies with the court 's decision, the Romany forgive him by admitting that the skirt-tossing story was fictional. This admission is essential to the peaceful settlement of the case. Rom do not know any purifying ritual that will cleanse a man 's head, the nexus of respect and honor, of such impurity. In fact, skirt-toss marhime "never happens...it is a lie if she really did it, he 's out...no one could eat with that family forever." (Rehfisch 51)
This defense for women has proven a very powerful asset for Rom men and their wives. Another story from Yoors shows how a wife was able to protect her husband and probably save his life by the threat of skirt tossing:
There was once a fight between a young man from the Trokeshti group, who with his wife was visiting the powerful, numerous and mean Voyatesha...It was an inconsequential drunken brawl, but several of the Voyatesha banding together senselessly brutalized the outsider. The young wife was helpless and her alternate pleading and cursing were to no avail until after having duly warned them, still without effect, she ripped off one of her manifold skirts and symbolically flailed them all with it. The fight stopped instantly as they realized they had become marhime and no Rom, not even their closest male relatives, would have anything to do with them until the case was brought before the Kris and the burdensome onus of the marhime lifted. (Yoors 151)
Marhime is also associated with age status. There are three major categories of age status: child, adult, and elder. Childhood status has two major marhime categories. At birth, a mother and baby are marhime for six weeks, and are isolated from men. At six weeks, the child becomes wuzho and is thereafter considered innocent of defilement, shame, or social responsibility. Consequently, most rules of marhime do not apply to children before puberty. Pre-puberty children can eat food handled by Gajeiii (non-gypsies). Children are often selected to act as liaisons between the Rom and the outside world. A child’s clothing does not have to be separated by sex or upper-lower body divisions for washing. All these things would be defiling to a post-puberty child or adult. Children can become melaloiv but not marhime.
The rite of adulthood for a young Rom can be either the beginning of puberty or marriage depending on the group. The girl may go through a period of uncertainty, during which she becomes a lower-status member of the husband 's family. It may be only after she has had several children that she will be fully accepted as a woman, a Romni. (Hess 12) The lower body becomes marhime with either marriage or puberty, particularly menstruation for girls, and continues throughout adult sexual life. There is a whole group of specific behaviors, which are only necessary for post-puberty and pre-menopausal women to follow.
After adulthood the Rom enter into the final age status stage of old age, Old age, which is acknowledged after the birth of the second grandchild, brings increased status and respect. Old people are regarded as intrinsically moral and clean compared to sexually active men and women. “At menopause, women not only attain wuzho status, but they overcome the inferiority of their sex, and drop many of the behaviors required of adult women. They also become extremely powerful and politically active.” (Sutherland 263) Childhood, Adulthood, and Old Age are three times at which the Rom acquire a new social status.
Internal social hierarchy is also associated with degrees of cleanliness. The hierarchy of the four nations of Rom: the Machwaya, Lowara, Kalderasha, and Churara, is partly expressed in terms of purity and pollution. One Kalderasha Rom described the Machwaya like this:
The Machwaya think they are better, they are higher class. We dress just as well and look our best. Even though we look nice, when we go to their Slava we are afraid to walk out on the floor because we might get it dirty. They look at us like they are afraid we might touch them. They think they are cleaner." (Sutherland 260)
In another account, given by Jan Yoors of his stay with the Lowara Rom in France, the superiority complex of tribes of higher social status to those of lower social status is shown:
At sundown, a large group of gaily chattering Tshurara women and children returned to the camp with quantities of ripe strawberries they had gathered at some cultivated patches. Before any of the men had tasted any, an ominous question arose as to their possibly being marhime...The Tshurara women walking ahead or behind the others probably stepped over the plants from which those who followed were bound to have gathered fruits. A gypsy woman 's having stepped over them made the strawberries marhime beyond a doubt. The "soiled" fruit was promptly, if regretfully, discarded. (Yoors 165)
Rom groups who are considered to be of a higher social status often question the actions of lower status Rom. Respect is shown by openly eating with a group. If you refuse to eat with someone, you are telling them you don 't think they are living the marhime standards correctly. Questioning someone 's food is to question one 's entire way of carrying out the daily rituals.
Wuzho is associated with persons inside the boundaries of the Rom cultural group in different degrees. Marhime, on the other hand, is associated with persons outside the Rom cultural group. Gaje are not only marhime because they are outside the group but also because they do not maintain proper upper and lower body separation. In Rehfisch 's book, he provides a description of Americans given by a Rom:
You know what we think of Americans? We think they 're stupid, crazy, ignorant, filthy, and no good. Why? Because Americans always have syphilis and clap. They go down on each other. We throw the glass they drank out of away. They 're filthy. It 's not the same as clean and dirty. It 's a lot worse. Americans wash their face with the same towel they wash their feet with. Ugh! (Rehfisch 46)
Anytime a Rom is forced to use Gaje places or to be in contact with large numbers of Gaje (ex: in a job, hospital, welfare office, school), he or she is in constant danger of pollution. In restaurants the Rom avoid eating utensils and eat with their hands. They ask for a plastic or paper cup for drinks, and they are constantly worried about catching something from the Gaje around them. (Sutherland 259) Food is a principal way of becoming marhime, so Rom are especially particular when they eat in Gaje restaurants.
Economic relations between the Rom are based on cooperation and mutual aid. It is considered immoral to earn money from other Rom. The Gaje are the only legitimate source of Rom income; skill in extracting money from them is highly valued. Acceptable relations with Gaje are only situations of economic exploitation or political manipulation. If a Rom is forced to take a job from Gaje, they take great pains to keep themselves separate. Women may take piece-work in a factory for example, but only when they can work together, physically removed from non-Gypsy women. "One girl who took a position with the Job Corps (a American program for training young people) was treated as is she had committed a breach of the sexual code.” (Sutherland 73) If a Rom is too closely integrated into Gaje life, they are considered marhime due to their constant affiliation with marhime people and things.
Analysis and Conclusion

The thing, which divides the Rom from other people, is their concepts of purity and pollution. This severe distinction allows the Rom to clearly identify themselves as superior to other groups. It also provides a method of protection for women within the society, a means of determining status and a way of separating responsibilities by age and gender. Coupled with their nomadic life-style, the Rom are able to lead economically successful lives while remaining separate from the more numerous societies which surround them.
The Rom are a fascinating group that have successfully lived in many areas of the world for thousands of years. The ideals of marhime and wuzho are stringent and powerful rules of conduct for these people. Without these ideals, these people would not be able to survive separately as they have done. The premise of their own cultural superiority over the culture of the land in which they live enables them to exploit the members of the larger society in order to survive as a separate cultural entity.
I have no doubt the Rom will survive as long as they continue to hold their cultural ideals so strongly, and follow them so closely. While at first I was surprised and a bit shocked by the influence that their ideas of marhime have on the Rom, I came to understand how these ideas worked for them. These people truly are devout believers and can teach us much about loyalty, family, and cultural strength and unity if we would but learn more about them.

Works Cited

Gropper, Rena C. "Gypsies." The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book Inc., 1986.
Hess, Andrew “Marime in Gypsy Society”, August 11, 1998, New York University, February 1, 2001, < http://www.nyu.edu/pages/hess/docs/rom1.html >
Rehfisch F., Ed. Gypsies, Tinkers, and Other Travelers. New York: Academic Press, 1975.
Sutherland, Anne. Gypsies: The Hidden Americans. New York: The Free Press, 1975.
Yoors, Jan. The Gypsies. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967.
End Notes