Stretching back many centuries to its origins in India, the Gypsy oral tradition has accumulated a vast, diverse treasury of folktales. The eighty tales in this volume are gathered from thirty-one different countries. Each tale has a headnote elucidating the tale s background. Index; photographs.
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This book of interdisciplinary readings on Gypsies is sensitive to the Romani point of view and avoids exoticizing or patronizing the Gypsies and their culture. Recurrent themes in the readings include: the historical oppression of the Gypsies including contemporary xenophobia and violence; the nonstatic, heterogeneous nature of Gypsy cultures; the persistence of racist stereotypes; and personal and institutional Gypsy/non-Gypsy relationships. Nearly all of the classic essays updated for this volume tell stories of the persistance of the Roma in the face of savage atrocities and appalling...