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The Gipsies in Corfu

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The Gipsies in Corfu 1 The Gipsies in Corfu (14th--1919th century) For several centuries, official history ignored the Gypsies, a very interesting group of people from a historic point of view, a group of fellow-men who are so close to us and yet so unknown. We have been in contact with the Gypsies for the last six years, in the context of the program “Education of Gypsy children”, conducted by the University of Ioannina, with the encouragement and the precious guidance of Professor Pedagogics Mr. Gotovos. Undertook this task by our interest in the so called “marginal social groups”. The identification of this group with certain ways of behavior and a lifestyle, which isolated and distanced them from the rest of the society, urged us to study the Gypsies historically, our immediate purpose being to ascertain the diachronic nature of the stereotypes. The fear of the “unknown Romà” encloses anything concerned with them into stereotypical images. The stereotypes, along with the distance between this group [and the dominant social group] result in myths, used arbitrarity and in relation to the circumstances. This abuse of the stereotypes and the myths built around them result in an unfair mystic consideration of the group, far irrelevant to their reality and their needs. As far as the Romà are concerned, this mysticism is created by the “others” [, the non-Romà], to “justify” the persistent exclusion of this group from the social activities. 2 Their conditions of living, their lifestyle and even their way of thinking cannot have derived from their diversity from the whole and [the individuals] are not self-determined by those features. Consequently, it is unfair to attribute to them features that cannot be proven as innate, as biologically determined, and their diversification from the whole of the society cannot be founded on those features. The present study aims at examining the Romà group in the Corfu geographical district of Greece. Gypsies are first witnessed in Crete in 1323 and a few years later (about 1370) they are encountered in Epirus, where they work as villains and slaves. From Epirus, they pass to Corfu, where we deal with the most interesting case of Gypsy setting. We have information about the existence on this island of a feud, the so called “Feudum Aciganorum”. According to the sources, this feud included Tziganes as well. It was of a considerable importance, something which is testified 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 information we draw for this feud offer us a complete picture about both its numbers and vassals, and its landowning status. We are actually in the position to disprove the view of the non-existence that no land was assziated with this feud. 3 Given the absence of a sociological nature, we tried to understand the position of the Gypsies in the wider social group, through administrative documents. The weddings, the population data and the notarial acts contributed to this kind of approach. Firstly, in examining the wedding acts, we should insist in three basic parameters: 1. the presentation in them, e.g. in their surname definition; 2. the kind of the wedding, e.g. if it is mixed or non-mixed; and 3. their religious nature and their frequency. Particularly, the existence of Gypsy weddings in the archival series “Grand Head Priests [Μεγάλοι Πρωτοπαπάδες]” in the General Records of Corfu and Venice, leads us to conclude that the Gypsies who lived in Corfu throughout the Venetian era of were Orthodox Christians, which means that they had adopted or originally belonged to the dominant religious creed; certainly, the existence of Gypsies with different religious identity cannot be excluded, we must however 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 metaphysical affairs (a view which had been dominant and shadowed the people of this group); on the contrary, this conclusion coincides 4 with those of recent studies, which support that the Gypsies usually adopt the religious creed that represents the religious feeling of the dominant social group. The case of the religious conversion of a Gypsy person, as rare as it can be, is characteristic; this person adopted christianism in 1818 and was baptized Ioannis, while he was given the surname of his godfather, Theotokis. This case is of particular interest, as the family of Theotokis was a wealthy and noble family, included in the list of the Venetian libro d’ oro. The lack of knowledge concerning his previous religion prevents us from comparing the religious data. “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 been completed, during whichwhich he had been taught about the Christian creeds and 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 His Honor, the president of the ParliamentParliament of Corfu, Mr. Emmanouel Theotokis; the name he received was Ioannis Theotokis. Priest Spyridon VlachosVlachos.. In continuing with the kind of marital acts, we are in the position to support that, the variety of cultural mixings through mixed weddings can be proved by a wedding that took place in 1725 between Ioannis Petros, a Jew, and a Gypsy woman. At this point, we think it is opportune to mention our effort to trace the percentages of the mixed weddings. 5 73% conduct mixed weddings, whereas 27% marry partners with common Romà origins. It is remarkable that mainly the male population (49) with Romà origins marry wives with non Gypsy origins (73). During the 16th century we observe that an important percentage of the weddings took place between people with common origins; 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 forget, various groups of Albanian, Peloponnesian, Cretan and Italian origin. How do the Gypsies present themselves in Corfu from the 15th and 16th centuries and afterwards? A man with Romà origin presented himself using his first name and an adjective declaring his origin, e.g. GEORGIOS Atsinganos [Γεώργιος Ατζίγγανος].LATER, the form of his name changes by the addition of the family name, e.g. Georgios Kyriakis Atsinganos [Γεώργιος Κυριάκης Ατζίγγανος]. Finally, in the 18th century, the adjective declaring the origin perishes and remain only the first and the family names REMAINED e.g. Georgios Kyriakis [Γεώργιος Κυριάκης]. 6 Two families with Romà origins, which are not attested in any source, are of particular interest. The coincidental discovery of a document WITH the title γενιε γιφτι (gypsy race) reveals their origin, 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. As far as the frequency of the Romà marriages is concerned, we must enote the existence of cases of second or third marriages, which disproves the belief about the strict morals of the Romà group. This is not a characteristic exclusively of this group, as it is encountered in the rest of the population as well. In partiparticular,cular, the greatest percentage of the men and women only marry once, but there are also second or third weddings, something that characterizes the whole of the population. We are beginning to be confronted with thoughts relevant to assimilation or integration, since all the information mentioned above make us reconsider the set and largely prejudiced view about this group, which present the same features as all the other population groups, something that is proved by the conclusion of mixed weddings, contrary to their “racial” isolation. Besides, there are not any mentions in the travelers’ texts of the 19th century, or in literature, about the Gypsies, unlike the texts concerning other regions of Greece. 7 This impression of integration does not derive only from the mixed marriages. If we study the population data, we will come to simular conclusions. Our study has so far revealed 3 censuses that regard the Gypsies among others. The occasional and random references to this group make us conclude that the official state did not face them in a singular (separate) way (administrative marginalisation). One could justify this situation by means of their restricted population on the island. For example, on the census reports, there is a separate parameter with the title Γιφτι [Gypsies], which is not in favor of this group and that can be encountered throughout the Venetian period of the Venetian Conquest of Corfu. One should therefore notice that the group is initially discernible, as time went on however the integration into the whole of the society raises those administrative borderlines. Nevertheless, it is not the only social group that presents this specialty. The Jews, the Latins and the distinction of the families into noblemen, wealthy, plebeians, owing to do unpaid labor, privileged, priests and according to their professional identity, are just some of the census parameters.
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