Évolution des valeurs tsiganes. Étude comparée des Tsiganes roumains et des Tsiganes français
The evolution of values in Gipsy communities: A comparative study in Romania and France

Summary/Abstract: This study should be considered as a part of the mainstream European research programs aimed to promote Gipsy integration. Unemployment, poverty and illiteracy are key factors that contribute decisively to the Gipsy exclusion in modern societies. More than this, gipsy specific culture is seen as being in contradiction with host societies way of living. Our aim was to compare Rromi population from France and Romania searching for certain differences. The main conclusion of our study is that, beside all the similarities, Gipsy populations have marked distinctions. These distinctions are due to their geographical zones of origins and forms of sedentary life. Romanian Gipsy population changed their traditional way of living whereas Gipsies living in France preserved their distinctive cultural features. We start by analysing the socio-historical contexts that generated differences in sedentary life of Rromi populations (comunism in Romania, democracy in France). Then we focus on the distinction between adaptive behavioural patterns used by Gipsies in France and Romania. We show how these differences are responsible for the preservation of traditional values for Gipsies in France and loss of them for Gipsies in Romania.

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