Professional Documents
Culture Documents
We have been in contact with the Gypsies for the last six years, in
this task by our interest in the so called marginal social groups. The
lifestyle, which isolated and distanced them from the rest of the
distance between this group [and the dominant social group] result in
abuse of the stereotypes and the myths built around them result in an
and their needs. As far as the Rom are concerned, this mysticism is
thinking cannot have derived from their diversity from the whole and
The present study aims at examining the Rom group in the Corfu
Gypsies are first witnessed in Crete in 1323 and a few years later
villains and slaves. From Epirus, they pass to Corfu, where we deal
by its duration. The first baron of the Feudum Aciganorum was one
Adamo di Sant Ippolito. The abolition of this feud came along with the
abolition of the feudal system in the Ionian Islands (19th century). The
both its numbers and vassals, and its landowning status. We are
basic parameters:
and
emphasize that no such act has been found. This conclusion confirms
the view that the people belonging to this group were neither
wizards nor charlatans and that they were not only concerned with
with those of recent studies, which support that the Gypsies usually
adopt the religious creed that represents the religious feeling of the
christianism in 1818 and was baptized Ioannis, while he was given the
the list of the Venetian libro d oro. The lack of knowledge concerning
18th May 1818; a Gypsy man, about 20 years old, who had wished to adopt the
Christian religion, began catechism; once the requisite period of the catechism had
the declarations of our religion by myself, the signatory priest, and had adopted and
done everything in the same way, after having had the oral permission of the Right
Reverent, former Bishop of Roges, Mr. Makarios, temporary vicar of Corfu, and after
having rejected his original religion, he was blessed to receive the holy Baptism by
means of the holy Font. The godfather was His Honor Mr. Andreas Theotokis, son of
population (49) with Rom origins marry wives with non Gypsy origins
(73).
however, during the 17th and 18th centuries, there is an obvious shift
to mixed marriages. This fact proves the full assimilation of the Gypsy
social group by the wider social group, which includes, we should not
origin.
and remain only the first and the family names REMAINED e.g.
Georgios Kyriakis [ ].
6
Two families with Rom origins, which are not attested in any
but at the same time testifies that there existed an adhesion procedure
and that the definition of the origin of a person was not necessary.
In parti
particular,
cular, the greatest percentage of the men and women
only marry once, but there are also second or third weddings,
make us reconsider the set and largely prejudiced view about this
group, which present the same features as all the other population
weddings, contrary to their racial isolation. Besides, there are not any
Greece.
7
references to this group make us conclude that the official state did
time went on however the integration into the whole of the society
social group that presents this specialty. The Jews, the Latins and the
line all over the entire island, from the southern part and the
Magoulades. In the census of 1759 there are 159 Gypsies to have been
The most complete and notable census were the one that took
and 1759. In this census there is mention over the Gypsy families that
live on the island and at the same time belong to the feud. The fact
that the census had been signed by Prosalentis, baron of the feud,
condition of the Gypsies in that time, their assets, and we come to the
(existence of animals), just like the rest of the islands residents. The
A priest is not only a person in whom one can confide, but is at the
people and he may have been literate, something which was rare in
that time. Even recently, the role of the priest in the community was
the economic and social status of the people in a certain period of the
which perishes as the time went by, something which is very rare in
the particular period, as the use of a family name is not very often
persons character.
In the second place, there have been found notarial acts in which
esteem and status of the particular person. The family name is absent
of that period did not live only in the villages of the island,
reinforced by the fact that the contracting sides do not have Rom
the contract.
while in the censuses of 1692, 1711 and 1714 there are porters,
economic vigor.
time know and used the Greek language, which is tractable mainly in
Finally, we must emphasize that the Gypsies that live on the island
today are not related to those that lived there in the past centuries. We
are in the position to ascertain that new populations reach Corfu every
time, while the older Rom were integrated and ignored their origin, as
may be the case in some of us, who either ignore or do not consider