POVESTE CU ŢIGANI MAGHIARI
STORY ABOUT HUNGARIAN GIPSIES

Summary/Abstract: This paper tries to reveal the evolution of the Gipsy community in one of the multicultural villages of Covasna district, Zăbala. This investigation went through especially on the last eight years, when a lot of changes appeared in this community, from social and economic point of view. The research methods are the same as in sociology and ethnography: social biography, motivated or non motivated interviews. Due to the lack of communication with the Gipsy community the author appeals to interviews realized with Romanians and Hungarians. Beside these sources of information the author appeals also to observers. The aim of this paper-work is social, economic and also anthropological analysis. To prevent the act of demytologizing, the interviews will be always an indisputable argument. Concerning social structure there are some marks that were spoted even before 1989: “the institutions” of “Bulibaşa” (the big chief), “team chief” and of family. Because of the changes after December 1989, the first two will be little by little dispatched, while family is consolidated due to economic reasons. That is why family is considered to be rather an economic entity than a cultural and social one. There is also a sort of “disunion” concerning the Gipsy community: rich Hungarian Gipsies, living down-town and poor Hungarian Gipsies, living on the hills. We have to state that a Hungarian Gipsy must not be confounded with a Gipsy pure and simple, that is having a “Rrom” origin. Hungarian Gipsies will adopt the language, habits, way of living and so on from Hungarians; briefly, “Rrom” and Hungarian Gipsy are two different living persons. The distinct evolution of those distinct groups of Hungarian Gipsies had as a back-ground the existance of two different family structures from demographic point of view: one fighting for surviving, the other fighting for getting rich. As a consequence to different strategies of adapting, the first reaction of exclusion is changing, attitudes and habits vary defending rich Hungarian Gipsies. As a conclusion the appearance of those two Gipsy communities after 1989 was due to economic reasons implying two reasons for living and also the act of living between Romanians and Hungarians.

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