Interview with Bernhard Streck 29/11/2010

Cingeneyiz.org: "In our studies and research we are not dealing with Romanies/Gypsies as a homogenous ethnic group but we are approaching the multitude of groups existing in an interactive relationship with their social environment under the paradigm of a tsiganological relationism." Could you explain the perspective of your foundation we could see clearly in these sentences existing in the web page of Forum Tsiganologische Forschung for our audiences. What do you mean with the words "tsiganological relationism"?

All social sciences deal with relations. The task for sociologists, anthropologists or ethnologists is to comprehend these relations from all connected points. For the case of gyspy studies (Tsiganologie) that means looking from majority view point to the minority and vice versa. Relationism avoids privileging priorities and prefers perspectivical change. As a result you get different truths, this comes nearer to reality than reductionism with clear differences between good and bad. Such simplifications should be limited to religious messages.

Interview with Judith Okely

Cingeneyiz.org: You think that the theory of migration from India makes the gypsies "exotic strangers" for European intellectuals. Why do the European intellectuals have such an apprehension?

Many Europeans, indeed many European scholars especially, are entranced by the idea that Gypsies can be traced back to India. This does NOT necessarily cause apprehension. On the contrary, as Edward Said has argued, people like to exoticise the 'Other'. I have found that non-Gypsies or Gajes in public discourse, aswell as in some of the literature, are more troubled to think that Travellers or Gypsies may include some indigenous individuals. This is seemingly because it implies they have resisted assimilation into the dominant, if not 'superior' settled society.

Interview with Yaron Matras; About Secret Languages and Romanes

Cingeneyiz.org: There are different peripatetic societies in many parts of the world. These peripatetics use secret languages and language compositions. We are trying to understand the criterion which make these languages real, and what kind of sociological conditions affect the promotion of these languages?

To begin, we must keep in mind that we are talking about information in a period in which communication within cultures was primarily oral, and transactions were primarily oral. Therefore, there was a need for a very strong differenciation within oral conversation, in order to express different modes of communication. Today we can use fax, email and various other kinds of online orderers. But in the past, everything had to be done with different forms of verbal communication. As a result, one of the typical elements in peripatetic communities was what we now refer to as "tightknit communities."

Interview with the Dom Leader: Amoun Sleem

Cingeneyiz.org: Could you tells us about your life story

I was born to a Dom family here in the Old City of Jerusalem. Growing up I learnt quickly that being a Dom was not something to be proud of. In school the teachers told me that I was a ‘dirty Gypsy’ and that I would never go far. My fellow classmates also made fun of me and ignored me when I tried to be friendly to them. I stopped going to school because I felt so bad about myself, but I realized that education was the only way that I could get ahead. I went back to school and managed to stick it through until I graduated from high school! Everyone was surprised, including myself. I went on to college – I am one of only a few Dom with a post-secondary degree – and then decided that it was time to give back to my community. I founded the Domari Society of Gypsies in Jerusalem almost ten years ago and have been its director ever since.