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Tales in a Tent': John Sampson's Representation of Romanies

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Tales in a Tent': John Sampson's Representation of Romanies Tales in a Tent': John Sampson's Representation of Romanies by © Michelle Porter A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Folklore / Faculty of Arts Memorial University of Newfoundland August, 2011 St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador -l- Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-81977-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-81977-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, queiques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Abstract This analysis of an article published in 1892 examines the production of academic knowledge about Romanies in late nineteenth century Britain. This thesis investigates three aspects which arise from John Sampson's description of fieldwork: 1. the emergence and hegemonic dominance of the Gypsy Lore Society which published the article in its journal The Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society; 2. John Sampson's performance of an idealized Romani Rai and its impact upon his research methods; 3. what the text itself reveals about the nature of interactions between Romani Rais and Romanies, with a particular focus upon how items of folklore and language are coded to convey a variety of meanings to different audiences. From this discussion, this thesis concludes that the performance of the Romani Rai was an essential motivator for Sampson's academic activities and, further, that this performance diminished the quality and content of the research collected. Acknowledgments I'd like to mention Dr. Martin Lovelace, whose insight and flair for editing improved this work immeasurably. Thank you for inspiring this thesis—and for your continuing support when I decided to take this project in a different direction than expected. -in- Table of Contents List of Appendices vi Chapter One: Introduction 1 1.1 In which I attempt to explain what I am doing 1 1.2 What exactly is this project and how does it relate to folklore? 4 1.3 Terminology: the words I choose to use and why 12 7.3.7 'Gypsies' versus Romanies 72 1.3.2 Gyspiologist 16 1.4 Literature review 17 7.4.7 Introduction 17 1.4.2 Overview 18 1.4.3 Identity 20 1.4.4 Folklore and gypsiology 21 1.4.5 Critical approaches to gypsiology 24 1.5 What you will be reading 37 Chapter Two: In the Society of Gypsiologists 40 2.1 Introduction 40 2.7.2 The possibility of a different Romani Studies 42 2.2 The Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society 48 2.3 A Rum Lot: A history of the GLS and the JGLS 54 2.4 Gypsylorism 61 2.5. The influences of Heinrich Grellmann and George Borrow 64 -iv- 2.6. George Borrow (1803-1881) 68 2.7. The other club: the fight for hegemonic dominance 73 2.8. Conclusion: Alternative histories, alternative futures 78 Chapter Three: John Sampson: The Romani Rai 80 3.1 Introduction 80 3.2. "The Rai of Rais" 81 3.3. Looking at the Romani Rai 87 3.4. John Sampson: Scholar Gypsy and Gypsy Scholar 103 Chapter four: Two Societies 118 4.1. Introduction 118 4.2. Trapped in time 120 4.3. Speaking to an audience of peers 124 4.4. Talking Romanies 126 4.5. Funny differences 134 4.6. Stories told in folklore 137 4.7. The final scene 140 Chapter Five: Conclusion 155 Glossary 163 Bibliography 165 -V- List of Appendices 1. "Tales In a Tent" by John Sampson Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 In which I attempt to explain what I am doing Whenever some curious person asked about the subject of this thesis—at a party of graduate students or during a late night phone call with a friend—I would reply with variations of the following: I am writing about the production of academic knowledge about the Romanies since the late nineteenth century. In response, I might receive a blank stare or someone might ask after a pause, 'about what?' Each time, I knew how to clear up the confusion. All I had to do was throw out one word: 'gypsies.' Then the curious person understood—or thought he or she did. The word 'gypsies,' once spoken, evoked the multitude of portrayals of Romanies with which we are all familiar and which often represent our closest associations with the people upon whom we still project our escapist fantasies and fears of the unknown. I am certain you can immediately bring to mind at least one or two of the portrayals to which I am referring: the children's books and novels, the poems and ballads, the films and television programs which include a mysterious and elusive dark-skinned character as a stereotyped trope. Remarkably, the 'gypsy' stereotype has survived virtually unchanged for centuries; within these stereotypes reside the ghosts of the scholarly men and women who are at the centre of this thesis, men and women who organized in the late nineteenth century to amplify the reach and impact of their ideas and were so successful in their endeavor that the Romani identities portrayed in their work remain dominant in the public imagination today. -1- I hated to do it; I hated to use the word 'gypsy' to explain the work in which I was engaged. Yet, how many times, in the years and months before I began this avenue of research, did I excuse the many times my family and I have moved by declaring with a shrug of a shoulder that 'we're gypsies.' Furthermore, it was the romance of 'gypsy' which urged me to take up this line of study. I still recall the 'thrill' I felt in class that day when my professor commented that a story we were analyzing was probably a 'gypsy' tale and cited as a clue its unusually detailed descriptions of traveling. I do not attribute to that professor my own misconceptions at the time—the ideas I brought to the word 'gypsy' were informed by the very stereotypes which are referred to above and analyzed in some detail throughout this thesis—but I do credit his chance comment with leading me down this road. Though it was the romantic 'gypsy' which brought me here, it is the reality of Romani lives and Romani activism which informs this thesis and which continues to hold my attention. Because I hated to use the word 'gypsy' in any explanation involving the thesis I was writing I would sometimes elaborate upon that simple explanation, depending upon who I was talking to. I might explain that to many Romanies, particularly Romani knowledge producers or activists, the word 'gypsy' was pejorative. I might even go on to say that to many Roma, the use of the word 'gypsy' was as offensive as the use of the word 'Indian' is to some aboriginal peoples and activists. Interestingly, both words came about because of erroneous conclusions about each group's country of origin, 'gypsy' being a corruption of Egyptian, the country from which they were believed to have -2- migrated. The conversation rarely went further than that. For most people it was enough of an ontological (or paradigm) shift to understand that the 'gypsies' of storybooks were actually Romanies with complex histories, identities, and lives outside the movies and books in which they most visibly appeared. But, when talking with one or two curious people, I mentioned the newspaper articles I had noticed since choosing my thesis subject, the news stories which demonstrated the continuing relevance of a thesis focused upon the deconstruction of Romani identities formed in the last two centuries. The stereotyped identities I analyse in my thesis are still providing an excuse for racism and exclusion today, I explained. I pointed to stories such as the Reuters article which appeared in Time magazine in the fall of 2010 about France's expulsion of a portion of its Romani population, beginning with the words "[t]hey are the underclass, the outcasts."1 Ironically, the story noted that this was occurring five years into EU's Decade of Roma Inclusion campaign.
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