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More about the Romani Traditions & Social Structure

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SOCIAL STRUCTURE (example from original social structure from among the Roma in Slovakia): Ethnicity/Nation: Roma Tribe: Servika/Kherutna/Slovačika Roma (I'll later refer to this tribe as 'Servika Roma' only, as it is oldest name of this tribe) Clan: Clans within a tribe, very similar to Indian Gotra Caste (we don't use this word): there are often various castes within a tribe, in India it is known as a  Jāti. The castes among the Roma are divided into the Ritually Clean and Ritually Unclean castes. NOTE:  Social structure within other Romani tribes (including the tribes which live in other countries than Slovakia) looks little bit differently, as often other tribes are more like castes and have elevated importance of clans. For example the Lovári tribe who belong to the Vlax Roma super-tribe has a lot clans but no castes as they are a caste themselves, these clans have various level of importance and prestige. The Lovári are the Traders who traditionally were tradin...

The problems which the communities of the Roma & Sinti are facing

  From outside of the communities: Racism This includes; - Verbal attacks & threats, including calls for sending the "Gypsies to the Gas chambers" or calling the Roma "black mouths. - Physical attacks, including arson attacks or Policemen violence on the Roma. - Genocide, including attacks on the Roma communities by the Para-Military or Terrorist groups whose aim is to eradicate the Roma in the territories under their realm. Many times also happened sterilisation done by the State on the Roma, when Romani women were sterilised without any information or against their will. - Institutional Racism, it is done by the state institutions, this includes sending automatically all Roma children to the Special School (which is for mentally or physically retarded children), as well as Police-profiling based on race. Under the Institutional Racism also belong -> Disadvantage on getting Work (many Employers reject Roma to become their Employees), as well worse Health Care qua...

History of the Ḍom People (ancestors of the Roma) within the South Asia (and partly beyond)

The  original Ḍom People started migrating from southern India (apparently somewhere in between nowadays Tamil Nadu and Kerala, with stops taking longer time than 300 years in nowadays Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka) to northern India in 2500 BC. Some etymology to the name Ḍom. It´s presumed root, ḍom, which is connected with drumming, is linked to word damara and damaru, Sanskrit terms for "drum" and the Sanskrit verbal root डम् ḍam- 'to sound (as a drum)', perhaps a loan from Dravidian, e.g. Kannada ḍamāra 'a pair of kettle-drums', and Telugu ṭamaṭama 'a drum, tomtom'. Why Ḍom are ancestor of the Roma? From Ḍom arose our ethnic name Rom - the Roma, in some dialects still with retroflexed R. In elsewhere pronounced as Dom/Domari with normal "D" in the name (within the Middle East & in Pakistan) and Lom (in Caucasus). Closest people to the original Ḍom are nowadays Adivasi tribes of the southern India, like the Irula, Paniya and ...