Romani Culture and Gypsy Identity

Romany culture is perhaps the most Indo-European of all. The ancestors of the Gypsies left India around 1000 years ago and mixed with every culture on the way to produce a variety of Romany dialects and well-known cultural achievements from Hungarian Gypsy music to the English Gypsy caravan. Such images somehow co-exist, however, with continuous persecution. This book provides a comparative account of Gypsy culture, art and music together with contemporary accounts of changes in education, health and religion. The text includes critical deconstruction of folklorism, illustrations of painted traditional caravans, and songs and extracts from musical scores.