Roma: Modern American Gypsies - Softcover

Anne H. Sutherland

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1478631961 ISBN 13: 9781478631965

Publisher: Waveland Press, Inc., 2016

Synopsis

America has always been a land of fascinating cultural diversity. From the extremely wide range of cultural groups on the American scene today, Gypsies, or Roma, are among the most extraordinarily elusive and complex.

For more than forty-five years, social scientist Anne Sutherland has researched and objectively written about the American Roma worldview. She honed traditional research methods to study the Roma, who normally obscure the truth about themselves to outsiders, dispelling centuries of misinterpretation, bias, and romanticism that have led to discrimination. In this latest work, Roma: Modern American Gypsies, she succinctly portrays their twenty-first-century lives and identifies how their realities have been shaped by global processes and agents of power. Throughout complex stages of change and adaptation, Sutherland concludes, Gypsies have managed to retain, not lose, their identity.

Ideal for coursework in introductory sociology and cultural anthropology as well as ethnicity, immigration, and American culture since Gypsy culture also vividly illustrates the strength of ethnic boundaries, the channeling of interethnic relations, subcultural differentiation, and adaptation.

Titles of related interest also available from Waveland Press: Gmelch, Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman (ISBN 9780881336023); Schaefer-Zellner, Extraordinary Groups: An Examination of Unconventional Lifestyles, Ninth Edition (ISBN 9781478630029); and Yoors, The Gypsies (ISBN 9780881333053).

About this title

Review

"Sutherland's Roma: Modern American Gypsies is a striking exploration of transformations in Romani life under the influences of globalization. Especially enlightening are discussions of Gypsy culture and customs that are misunderstood in the US. This fascinating book will benefit anyone interested in Romanies, social anthropology, and societal and cultural change." --Elena Marushiakova, University of St. Andrews and President, Gypsy Lore Society

"Anne Sutherland's long-awaited update of her groundbreaking 1975 study of Romani Americans reveals how this minority group, whose population numbers in the hundreds of thousands, is being reshaped by the Internet and political events. Her firsthand account will find a ready audience among academics, policy makers, and the merely curious." --Ian Hancock, The University of Texas at Austin

"Sutherland's earlier work was a must for anyone interested in or working with Roma communities. This distinguished researcher now gives us Roma: Modern American Gypsies, which shows a deft use and application of anthropological techniques and again demonstrates her respect, exceptional sensitivity, and loyalty toward the group she researches. She introduces readers to the world of selected Romani groups, showing their distinct identities and cultures in multiethnic and multicultural American society. For me, as not only a researcher but also a Roma, it is an inspiration." --Joanna Talewicz-Kwiatkowska, Jagiellonian University, Kraków

About this edition

• Publisher: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1478631961
• ISBN 13: 9781478631965
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 106