6 September 2024 at 12 noon (Finnish time, in Finnish) in Helsinki at Metsätalo, B116 (hall 1). You can watch the event online at this link: https://video.helsinki.fi/unitube/live-stream.html?room=l15
"Am I a Rrom? Continuity of Romanipen in exogamous families" -study investigates the intensity and continuity of the Romanipen (romaniba) of the Finnish Roma community in bicultural Romani families. At the beginning of the study, the characteristics of Romanipen (term: Ian Hancock) described by different researchers over a period of one hundred years, which were quite uniform, will be examined.
Hedman built questionnaires and interview forms based on the characteristics of Romanipen and received answers from 20 Roma parents and their 20 adult children for the research. He also used his own Roma background and expertise in Roma issues in the research.
The intensity of Romanipen has not been measured before. After familiarizing himself with mainly domestic Roma studies since the beginning of the 20th century, he found two dimensions in them, internal experienced Romanipen and external visible Romanipen. Internal Romanipen consists of Romani values, attitudes and the feeling of being a Roma. External Romanipen includes, in addition to the Romani language, the observance of Romani customs in three different contexts, which are the family, the immediate family and the wider social environment.
Based on the source material, Romanipen has remained fairly unchanged in Finland in terms of Romani customs and their observance, so Hedman ended up looking at Romanipen from an essentialist perspective. The core of Romani customs is still respect for older people. Romani culture represents Eastern collective culture.
According to this study, bicultural Roma families can be both transferors and rejecters of the minority identity. In a small scale exogamy can have the seeds of a threat if the internal value base of Romanipen or the characteristics of external Romanipen are lost.
Such as the Roma turned out to be in this study, bicultural Roma cohabitation/marriages also offer a possibility for the continuation of Romanipen. Romanipen was most strongly maintained and passed on to the grandchildren by the grandparents. The next generation of Roma was also supported by the Roma visiting culture, events and celebrations, as well as the endogamous Roma cohabitation/marriages of adult Roma children. For the Roma, the most important thing is the Roma soul, the inner feeling of belonging to the Roma community and the right Roma values.
As a result of this research, an overall model of Romanipen was developed, which can be used to evaluate the intensity of Romanipen in both exogamous and endogamous families. The model is also suitable for similar studies of other minority cultures.
The dissertation can be read: ISBN 978-951-51-9526-5
