POVIJESNO – SOCIJALNA OBILJEŽJA ROMA U HRVATSKOJ
THE HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GYPSIES IN CROATIA

Summary/Abstract: Gypsies in Croatia are a historical autochthonous minority with clearly defined determinants of ethnic identity and specific cultural, artistic and traditional achievements. The results of the scientific research project “The social and developmental position of Gypsies in Croatia” carried out by the Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar from Zagreb (1998-1999), indicated through a historical analysis of Gypsy migrations the specific sociocultural position of Gypsies in Croatia from the past (first mentioned in Dubrovnik in 1362) until today. The lifestyle and migrations of Gypsies, although containing certain comparative advantages (dynamics, adaptability, connection between the working and living community), are often burdened by processes of isolation and assimilation in a broader as well as narrower environment. Gypsy (tribal) groups living nomadic lives or in isolated settlements have to a greater extent managed to preserve their ethnic identity. The expressed disproportion between the number of Gypsies in the census and their actual number is characteristic of the European (and Croatian) context.

• Details
• Contents