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Several Eastern European countries have large Roma populations. I don't like the term, but they are often referred to as "Gypsies".
I guess "Roma" is their culture...but what is their race? Caucasian?
They're originally from India, from one of the tribes there. The language is said to be Indo-Aryan, so they could be "Caucasoid", whatever that means anymore. Related to Indo-Europeans, anyway.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 07-18-2012 at 10:09 PM..
Ridiculuous propaganda. If race is a social construct than why can’t an African and and Asian couple make a Caucasian baby?
The physical differences among human beings are the result of allelic variation with regard to genetic expression. These differences have nothing to do with categories of "race" which is a man made social concept and is not based in modern scientific knowledge.
Quote:
Race is a recent human invention - Race is about culture, not biology
Yes, there are clearly physical differences between populations but you can't delineate races from each other, it's more like populations look more and more different the farther away they get, but there's no clear line. For example, are Somali's black or arab? Are Nepalese Indian or Oriental? What about Burmese? When do arabs stop being "white" mediterraneans and start being considered some other race? It's a silly term that isn't practically useful in physical anthropology, it's use is mainly as a cultural construct that let's people define an identity.
Anyhow, yeah, the original Roma came out of the Indo/Pakistani region of Balochistan as a hired mercenary army (who brought their families) to fight a war in Persia. Something went wrong and the horde continued west into the Byzantine empire in the 11th century. Because they were Hindus and knew strange customs, they passed themselves off as sorcerers who would do the king's bidding in return for refuge, and he accepted this offer. Eventually, however, he came to fear them and exiled them, so they've been wandering ever since. They pretty much all became nominal Christians eventually, but some Hindu traditions, Indian superstitions, and Indian derived languages still survive. Ethnically, they range from mostly Indian descended to mostly European descended. After a thousand years, there's been a considerable amount of inter-marriage.
Several Eastern European countries have large Roma populations. I don't like the term, but they are often referred to as "Gypsies".
I guess "Roma" is their culture...but what is their race? Caucasian?
It's PC to substitute "Roma" for "gypsy," however, while all Roma are gypsies, not all gypsies are Roma. The Ciganos (i.e. gypsies in English) where I live are not Roma, and do not like the Roma when they appear in town.
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