'Gypsies', Travellers'

Department of History and Civilization ‘Gypsies’, Travellers’ and ‘peasants’ A study on ethnic boundary drawing in Finland and Sweden, c.1860-1925 Miika Tervonen Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Florence, 8 December 2010 Tervonen, Miika (2010), ‘Gypsies’, Travellers’ and ‘peasants’: A study on ethnic boundary drawing in Finland and Sweden, c.1860-1925 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/23715 Department of History and Civilization ‘Gypsies’, ‘Travellers’ and ‘peasants’ A study on ethnic boundary drawing in Finland and Sweden, c.1860-1925 Miika Tervonen Examining Board: Prof. Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (EUI) - supervisor Dr. Antti Häkkinen (University of Helsinki) Prof. Antonella Romano (EUI) Prof. Leo Lucassen (Leiden University) © 2010, Miika Tervonen No part of this thesis may be copied, reproduced or transmitted without prior permission of the author Tervonen, Miika (2010), ‘Gypsies’, Travellers’ and ‘peasants’: A study on ethnic boundary drawing in Finland and Sweden, c.1860-1925 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/23715 Tervonen, Miika (2010), ‘Gypsies’, Travellers’ and ‘peasants’: A study on ethnic boundary drawing in Finland and Sweden, c.1860-1925 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/23715 Abstract The study concerns two minority groups, the Finnish Roma and the Swedish Travellers, and their changing relationship with the ‘peasants’ – ie. the mainstream sedentary population – in a period of economic modernization and nation-state building. Leaning on a wide array of qualitative material, the research forms an analysis of interethnic relations, with a particular focus on micro-level interaction, conflicts and boundary drawing. As a socio-historical research, it aims to broaden a topic which has conventionally been approached from political and cultural perspectives. Contrasting with an ‘isolation thesis’ implicit in much of the previous literature, the study found that the Roma and Traveller populations were in the research period tied into constant interaction with the sedentary rural population. Yet, close everyday interaction and established networks co-existed with extremely strong ethnic differentiation, upheld from both sides of the divide. This was clear in relation to those transgressing the ethnic boundary, be it through inter-ethnic matrimony, being raised as a foster children, ‘settling down’, etc. Despite constant re-adaptations, the Swedish Travellers and particularly Finnish Roma seem to have lost much of previous occupational diversity during the research period. Upheavals and social stratification in the rural society wiped out old niches and the established local positions connected to this. A process of marginalization was reinforced by local vagrancy- and social control. These followed a circular logic, which continuously pushed out those already seen as illegitimate and unwanted. Local authorities acted as powerful boundary enforcers, dramatically reducing the options of those labelled as ‘Gypsies’ or ‘Tartars’. The rise of nationalist framework problematized the position of the Roma and the Travellers further. The emergence of ‘print capitalism’ was accompanied by the public stigmatization of the latter as deviants and degenerates. In the local level, the ‘Gypsy’ and ‘Tattare’ ‘questions’ were entwined with power struggles and class tensions, with freeholding peasants particularly eager to exclude Roma and Travellers, both on national and local level. While the empirical focus of the thesis is on the Finnish case, comparison with Sweden points to the intertwining of social separation and cultural differentiation. In both cases, the interlocking of social-, ethnic- and ‘racial’ differentiation, together with status of illegitimacy, produced what could be called ‘enforced ethnicity’. i Tervonen, Miika (2010), ‘Gypsies’, Travellers’ and ‘peasants’: A study on ethnic boundary drawing in Finland and Sweden, c.1860-1925 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/23715 Contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Parallel histories: the Roma and the Travellers in the North 7 1.2 Theoretical approaches 14 Ethnicity as a historical phenomenon 14 Mobility, infamous occupations and peripatetic groups 17 1.3 Sources 20 1.4 Note on terminology and research ethics 30 2. Historical context: Vagrancy control, mobility and crisis 35 2.1 State, vagrancy and the Gypsies 35 Roma/Travellers and the 19th century changes in vagrancy laws 39 Centre of gravity: local and provincial level 41 Effects of the vagrancy control 46 2.2 Mobility and crisis in the countryside 52 3. Nationalism, press and the ‘Gypsy question’ / ‘tattare burden’ 57 3.1 Finnish nationalism and the problematization of the Roma 57 ‘Gypsy question’ in the Diet 59 Dichotomization in the press 64 The ‘Gypsy question’ and local power 73 3.2 Swedish nation-state and the ‘tattare burden’ 79 Nationalism, race and the crystallization of the ‘tattare’ –label 85 4. Material survival and the Roma–peasant relations 91 4.1 Basic challenges: habitation and food 93 4.2 Economic activities 100 Female economic sphere: ‘walking’ and ‘asking’ 104 Men and horses 115 Other economic activities 126 4.3 In friendly houses: getting accommodation 136 4.4 Distrust and conflicts 142 A history of violence? 148 4.5 The Roma’s survival: strength of the weak ties? 155 ii Tervonen, Miika (2010), ‘Gypsies’, Travellers’ and ‘peasants’: A study on ethnic boundary drawing in Finland and Sweden, c.1860-1925 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/23715 5. On the borderline between ’Gypsies’ and ’peasants’ 157 5.1 Interethnic marriages 160 5.2 Foster children and farm labourers 167 5.3 Settled Roma 175 ‘Peasant Gypsy’ Carl Fredrik E. and his offspring 178 5.4 Persistance vs. malleability of ethnic differentiation 189 6. The Roma in court: Eastern Finnish penal records, 1865-1901 191 6.1 The courts and the cases 191 6.2 The accused 195 Names, passports and identities 200 6.3 Property crimes 203 6.4 Violence 206 Violence between the Roma 209 Violence against non-Roma 213 6.5 The position of the Roma viewed through penal records 217 7. The Travellers and the ‘peasants’: interaction, conflict and differentiation 219 7.1 The Travellers’ livelihood 220 Economic activities 225 7.2 Interaction and conflicts 237 Settled Travellers and their neighbours 243 7.3 ‘No rule without exception’: passing over the ethnic boundary 249 The Heymowski problem revisited 258 Conclusion 261 Sources 267 Bibliography 271 Appendices i Translated citations in original langugages 281 ii Socio-historical terminology and translations 300 iii List of tables and illustrations. 301 iii Tervonen, Miika (2010), ‘Gypsies’, Travellers’ and ‘peasants’: A study on ethnic boundary drawing in Finland and Sweden, c.1860-1925 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/23715 Ackowledgements During the years which I have written my thesis (I seem to have lost count of them), my native country Finland and other parts of Europe in which I have worked at - Italy, Hungary, France, even England and Sweden - have all witnessed revivals of what appear to a historian very much like the ‘old-school’ ethnic nationalisms. Primordialist myths and simplifications, necessary for any understanding of the world through a matrix of clear-cut nations, have again proven to be dangerous for newcomers, minorities and other ‘outsiders’. This is especially true in respect to the diversity of people known as Roma, Sinti, Gypsies, Travellers etc., who are once more being essentialized, exploited and reduced into a ‘problem’ throughout the continent. I thus regret to say that while my doctoral dissertation is plainly an exercise in historical research, many of the issues it touches upon are far from being just history. Writing a dissertation can be lonely at times. Still, I too stand in gratitude for many for their invaluable help, critique, and inspiration. Firstly, I wish to thank my supervisors Heintz- Gerhard Haupt and Antti Häkkinen for the seemingly unconditional trust and respect which they have showed to me. The same goes for senior lecturer Panu Pulma, who has during years of collaboration taught me a lot about the craft of a historian (and who at my current project constitutes a near-perfect boss). I would also like to thank professors Antonella Romano and Leo Lucassen for their comments, critique and encouragement; as well as the broad-minded professor Matti Peltonen for facilitating my work at the Department of Social Science History at the University of Helsinki. From the start, important intellectual support has been given to me by Anu Katainen from the Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki. Other inspiration has been given by professors Norma Montesino, Henriette Asséo, Laurence Fontaine and Gerhard Baumgartner. I have also benefitted from exchanges with professors John Breuilly, Michael Stewart, Birgitta Svesson, Pauli Kettunen, Sebastian Conrad and Peter Kraus, as well as with Anne Minken, Päivi Pukero, Maarten van Ginderachter, Miranda Vuolasranta, Helge Valama, Tommaso Vitale, Emmanuela Ignatoiu-Sora, Kristiina Heinonen and Ilkka Markkula. Special thank to Rainer Friman for his wisdom, and Veijo Baltzar for challenging me in a way which only he can. Besides this, I am grateful for innumerous fellow researchers from different contexts (EUI; Dept. of Social Science History in Helsinki; Dept. of Govermnent, LSE; Romany Studies summer course, Central European University) who have lightened my life and helped, directly

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