The birth of a group : two Roma micro-groups in Bukovina and Transylvania

Abstract

The study is based on a field trip to Roma communities the Carpathian region and focuses on the Roma living in two villages, Hlynytsya in Bukovina (Ukraine) and Uila/Weilau in Transylvania (Romania). Both cases refer to settled Roma, who make their living as hired workers in agriculture, combined with the provision of musical services to specific ethnic communities in their home region and even farther away. The analysis of some characteristics common to both Roma communities makes it possible to draw several conclusions about their historical and current development, which in both cases led to the creation of two new small Roma groups. The study comes to confirm once again that the contemporary mosaic of Roma communities in Europe, formed after several centuries of Roma presence, is only a temporary historical phenomenon.