Vol 2, No 8 2001 pp. 595 - 596
NEW BOOKS REVIEW
BUCHBESPRECHUNGEN
A SOCIOLOGICAL INSIGHT
INTO THE FATE OF THE ROMANIES
The book represents a choice of the papers reported on at
the First Komren Encounters. The main theme of this year's
conference was "A Sociological Insight into the Fate of the Romanies".
It was discussed by nine respectable Yugoslav sociologists, two politicologists,
one ethnologist and one Americanist. Many of the understandably uninformed
readers would probably ask themselves, "Why are these 'Komren encounters'
organized just now? Why have they chosen to talk about the Romanies?'.
Regarding the role we played in preparing the conference, we, as the authors
of the introductory note who are at the same time the editors of the anthology,
feel obliged to offer some initial explanation.
First of all, we would like to stress the fact that a
group of enthusiasts led by Professor Andon Kostadinović and Professor
Dragoljub B. Đorđević has been, for many years, leading a campaign for
establishing some kind of gathering that would contribute to the improvement
of the cultural life of the suburban settlements of Niš, primarily of Donji
Komren as well as other places named in the same way (Gornji, Novi and
Donji Komren Settlement). In order to start, however modestly, the whole
project, it was necessary to form some organization core, that is, to create
an association of citizens in accordance with the current legal procedures.
For this reason, a non-government organization "Komren
Sociological Encounters" came into being last year. Though the name may
appear slighly pretentious, it can be justified on the basis of the fact
that a dozen of sociologists actually come from this line of settlements.
Moreover, these are not only professionally-engaged sociologists, but,
as Professor Kostadinović explains in his paper presented at the "Komren
Encounters", also "those who have mostly completed their master's and doctor's
degrees or specialisation or those who are about to complete their postgraduate
studies or are at least successful high school teachers." Why should we,
then, restrain ourselves from saying a few words of praise? A good number
of them enjoy excellent reputation at institutes and universities; their
titles range from those of teacher assistents to full-time professors.
We have, of course, expected them to use their influence and acquaintance
to help us with the thematic and other aspects of organizing such a non-standard
manifestation.
And that is how it all happened. The "Komren Encounters"
came into being with the hope of being organized every year during the
Komren religious procession (litije), namely on the day of the traditional
gathering of all the inhabitants of Donji Komren. At the beginning, the
encounters were expected to be modest with a small number of participants,
epsecially guests. Likewise, it was planned that the core of the encounters
would be a small conference of sociologists discussing a particular theme
but without any intention of making the whole project a purely sociological
one.
What about the Romanies? Well, we have set it as a principle
that in the first few years the theme would be chosen by the sociologists
of Komren; the others are kindly asked to wait for their turn. That is
how it happened that we chose the Romany theme this year. Namely, we used
the privilege to organize the First Komren Encounters as a part of our
engagement in the project "SOCIOCULTURAL ADAPTATION OF THE ROMANIES IN
SERBIA IN THE TRANSITION PROCESSES – INTEGRATION, ASSIMILATION OR SEGREGATION?"
sponsored by the Research Support Scheme of the Open Society Foundation,
grant No.: 287/1998. In addition to the Komren Sociological Encounters,
the organization of the conference was helped by two other non-government
organizations, namely the Society for Good Action and the Yugoslav Society
for the Scientific Study of Religion.
The participants of the round table dealing with the
"Sociological Insight into the Fate of the Romanies" are excellent connoisseurs
of the Romany way of life. With a few exceptions, we have managed to gather
together the elite circle of romologists. For instance, the opening paper
dealing with the "Characteristics of the Romany population" was presented
by Aleksandra Mitrović, ph. d., our leading romologist. Goran Bašić, as
a very-well informed scientist, that is, an expert for the legal-political
position of the Romanies in our country and in Europe submitted the paper
on the "Political and Legal position of the Romanies in the Central and
Southeast Europe." Professor Dragan Koković is the first among the culturalists
especially those dealing with various ways of life; that is why he is discussing
the peculiarities of the Romanies' way of life. With the same success the
participants from Niš also presented their studies. Namely, Bogdan Đurović
is a promising romologist discussing conservativism and authority of the
Romanies in Serbia. The ethnologist Iva Trajković, the author of many papers
on the Romanies, deals with the "Burial of Urban Romanies" using Niš as
an example. Professor Dragoljub B. Đorđević gives his important contribution
by studying the extreme aspects of the Romanies' fate. Regarding the Romanies,
the marked contributions are given by Professor Dragana R. Mašović dealing
with the "Romanies in Our Daily Press", Professor Miloš Marjanović dealing
with the ethnic stereotypes of the Romanies and Dragan Todorović concerned
with the "Gypsy Cemetry in Donji Komren". Maybe the Encounters would further
enlarge the circle of the romologists with Professor Jovan Živković writing
about the "Destiny of the Romanies from Kosovo" and Assistant Teacher Srđan
Vukadinović dealing with the "Status of the Gypsis in Montenegro."
***
The editors' intentions, beside organizing a scientific
conference and an anthology of the papers dealing with the "Sociological
Insight into the Fate of the Romanies" (thus meeting the requirements of
the project on "SOCIOCULTURAL ADAPTATION OF THE ROMANIES IN SERBIA IN THE
TRANSITION PROCESSES – INTEGRATION, ASSIMILATION OR SEGREGATION?") were
the following: a) to make accessible to foreign authors the most recent
results achieved by the Yugoslav romologists, 2) to advance and make Yugoslav
romology more modern - by making it more sociological (as the sociology
of the Romanies) and by suppressing the dominating folklore, that is, the
ethnological theory of the Romanies, and 3) to affirm the interculturalist
theoretical and practical approach to solving the "Romanies' issue." As
for how much we have succeeded in it, it is up to the scientific public
and the future to decide.
Dragana R. Mašović
Dragoljub B. Đorđević
