Romany Gypsies Came Out Of India

ABC Science News ^ | 9-6-2004 | Anna Salleh

[Mamzelle]

A few years back, some otherwise unemployable sociology academics were trying to make a reputation with "Melungeons"--supposedly some dark-haired and dark-complected inhabitants of deepest darkest Appalachia that were possibly descended from Turks. Only trouble is, go to that deepest and darkest spot and talk to the oldest natives and they won't know what the word means. It was a fabricated issue.

Scots-Irish-Welsh are not always blue-eyed and freckled--look at Catherine Zeta Jones. And there's the Cherokees to consider . There were also many Gypsy tribes who'd make their way up and down the hills.

One story of Appalachia and Gypsies intersecting in Depression era--a Gypsy thief was captured and put in the country jailhouse to await trial. All the Gypsy tribes circled their wagons in town and at sundown commenced to cry and wail and make an awful commotion. Sheriff decided that the better part of justice was to cut a quick deal--and the Gypsies got their member out of jail and beat a hasty exit from the county.

[chukcha]

Is this the reason he started outsourcing to India?

[LonePalm]

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[yarddog]

In Sir Walter Scott's novel, "Quentin Durward", there is a description of Gypsies and their origin which is as accurate as any I have seen even today.

He says they came from India, but that they were once thought to have come from Egypt originally which is where they got the name "Gypsies".

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

blam you are usually on top of the news but this has been the accepted answer for some years now.

[Mamzelle]

Gypsies were on the edge of the law, but they could also be tradesmen and craftsmen. They were very well known for being "Tinners"--repairing tinware back when such things were repaired instead of replaced.

There's a temptation to be PC when discussing Gypsies--what can be understood by "gaijos" about their culture would indicate that a clever theft or con is something to be proud of. Gypsies do not like physical contact with non-Gypsies. We are "unclean". They have a distaste for cats.

Point of one interest--Gypsies, like hobos, would create little signs along the road that would only have significance for fellow Gypsies. These are called "Patterans". I saw one for sale in a catalog years ago--it was a figure of a cat marketed by the retailers as a " hobo sign that there was a nice lady ahead who would feed you."

Quite the contrary. A cat is an unclean animal because it licks itself and takes all the uncleaness inside itself...if a patteran was the figure of a cat, it didn't indicate anything pleasant.

[yarddog]

There was a good investigative story on one of the TV networks about Gypsies.

They pulled some of the most despicable cons on elderly and helpless people I have ever heard of. They are pretty sorry imo.

[blam]

"blam you are usually on top of the news but this has been the accepted answer for some years now."

Yup. I should have stated such in my first post. I read years ago that it is recorded somewhere(?) that a king in the Indus Valley awarded the king of Persia 10,000 of his subjects and there is some indication that this occured more than once. Somehow they made their way from Iran through Egypt and into Europe and were called Gypsies by the Europeans because they believed they came from Egypt.

[Restorer]

there's a theory that the original Gypsy population fled India ahead of Moslem invaders.

Not terribly likely, I suspect, as they would have had to traverse thousands of miles of solidly Muslim territory to reach Europe.

It is most likely that they are descended from one of the many "criminal castes" of India, which you can still read about in the old pre-PC Indian literature.

[Geezerette]

LOL! I was told the same thing when I was little ... and y'know, I actually wanted that to happen!! I thought it would be a very interesting and fun way to live!!

g

[muawiyah]

Most of the stuff on TV about "gypsy" cons is actually about "the Murphies" from South Carolina.

They originate in Ireland and Scotland.

[muawiyah]

As the Moslems invaded the Indus Valley, they were still invading the area we now call Afghanistan. Not sure where all those Moslems in the North were located at the time ~ since most of those folks were still Buddhist.

If we are talking of a relatively small population of about 1,000 people, there would not have been a serious problem in avoiding the Islamic conquest of the area.

[yarddog]

Could be but this one was about the real ones.

If anyone remembers, it also had featured a Miami cop who had gone over to the good side. He was a gypsie who was trying to stop their cons. He had a tremendous advantage as he knew all their scams.

BTW I am reasonably sure one of the Irish Travelers came by my Fathers house one day. I was outside and he asked if I wanted my driveway paved. He was driving a new high end 4wd pickup and was a very sharp looking guy. I was familiar with the group and of course told him no.

A few days later I noticed where they had conned some other people in the neighborhood.

[AIBC]

Gypsies=thieves, liars, con artists, filthy, ugly
They will still your money, your property, they'll break into your house and, usually, they do not speak well the language of the country they happen to live in (plunder).

[VadeRetro]

"[The research] is the best evidence yet of the Indian origins of the Gypsies," the researchers write in an article published online ahead of print in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

We've known this for decades because the Romany Languages are clearly descended from Sanskrit.

[FreedomSurge]

"But she said Gypsies had been persecuted due to superstition, racism and prejudice."

Maybe they were persecuted because of excessive lying and thieving?

[austingirl]

My mother told me she would sell me to the gypsies if I didn't behave,

[blam]

"BTW I am reasonably sure one of the Irish Travelers came by my Fathers house one day. I was outside and he asked if I wanted my driveway paved. He was driving a new high end 4wd pickup and was a very sharp looking guy. I was familiar with the group and of course told him no."

Yup. They got my dad, twice, on the paving thing. You won't believe how much he paid for just a little paving.

[PatrickHenry]

We've known this [the Indian origins of the Gypsies] for decades because the Romany Languages are clearly descended from Sanskrit.

Yes, but as the article points out:

"There are quite a few examples where a population adopts a language but this does not necessarily mean its biological roots belong to the same place as the larger population that speaks this language," she [Professor Luba Kalaydjieva] said. "So from the biological point of view we have provided we have provided the best evidence so far that this is indeed a population that derives from the Indian subcontinent."

[blam]

"My mother told me she would sell me to the gypsies if I didn't behave."

LOL, I would always hide when I saw them coming.