We, the Gypsies, are an important part of humanity. We are the children of the commercial nomads. Throughout history, Gypsies have lived on with commercial nomadism while other people with agriculture and stockbreeding. The ancestors of Gypsies have produced baskets, sieves, metal objects and tins to sell to other people. Our ancestors could not find any other possibility like agriculture or stockbreeding, because they were deprived of herds and wide lands. Actually, this is the only difference between Gypsies and the others.
The colours of skin, racial characteristics or language are not distinctive features between Gypsies and the other people. There are as many white-skinned or blond Gypsies as dark-skinned ones. Gypsies belong to various races and speak different languages. There is only one distinctive characteristic of Gypsies: They have lived on with commercial nomadism for thousands of years. If the ancestors of a Gypsy are commercial nomads, she/he is a part of the Gypsy community, whatever she/he does.
Although commercial nomadism is the only distinctive characteristic of Gypsies, there is a serious disagreement about this subject. Then what is the reason of this fear and the sense of strangeness against us? The answer of this question is hidden in our history.
We are the children of a universal culture which is thousands of years old. Unless this long history is described properly, it cannot be understood what “Gypsy” means. The history of Gypsies is also the history of human being. So we have to start to tell our history from the period that there was no division between occupations.
Thousands of years, human beings were living under similar conditions. Gathering and hunting were the only occupations. Human beings were living through hunting wild animals and gathering various plants. The women were as strong as the men in social life, because gathering was under their responsibility. This vital role made the women strong.
In course of time, human beings learned domesticating and nourishing herds. Various tribes around the world focused on this occupation. The men came into prominence and the women lost ground in these shepherd tribes, because gathering, the occupation of the women, lost its vital role in economy.
In this period, shepherd tribes needed wide grasslands. They have become armed to protect their grasslands and herds against the attacks of the other tribes.
On the other hand, some tribes continued gathering and hunting. But these occupations could not be done as easily as before, because shepherd tribes started to protect their grasslands through combating. Because of the pressure of the nearby shepherd tribes, these people were forced to do a different occupation: Commercial nomadism. They started to sell their craft products, in exchange for the products of shepherd tribes. So these tribes found a new way to survive. Our base occupations like basketing, ironing, sieving and tining are the keepsakes of those days.
Women have taken part in the economical life in the tribes whose economy has been based on commercial nomadism. Thus, the character of “strong women” has survived among the commercial nomads. Shepherd tribes were afraid of these people whose economical life based on the equality of woman and man. So they avoided to get closer to these tribes. This is the basic reason of unequal treatment which is thousands of years old. The division between the shepherds and the commercial nomads is the reason of today's distinction as gaco-muul-geben and Çingene. This is also the source of the power of our women who are defined as “quarrelsome”. One of the heritages of our ancestors is the equality of genders which is still survives in our society. Unfortunately, the social power of our women can be the motive of the humiliation and exclusion of us by the others. Obviously, fictitious slanders and baseless superstitions about us always refer to this point.
These commercial nomads are our ancestors. There are commercial nomads from different races who speak different languages, because our ancestors have migrated around the world and they have integrated with the other people who were living on with commercial nomadism. Different commercial nomads from different races have coalesced while shepherd tribes avoided marrying to commercial nomads. At the present time there isn't any society which is based on a pure and an unmixed race. Our ancestors have spread to such a wide region that Gypsyness has become a transracial culture. Being a Gypsy means to be related to a Hindu, a Caucasian, an African, a Turanian or a Persian. Among Gypsies, there is no racial distinction which has caused deep pains for human being.
Çingene is a label which has been chosen by the people of this geography to refer to the commercial nomads. In this country, our name is Çingene. We have different names in different countries. We are a transracial and a universal culture. We are happy to be component parts of different countries and a peaceful constituent of human being. We will be happier if we solve our problems through perceiving the origins hidden in the past.
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