Ebook: !Qué gitano! Gypsies of Southern Spain

This monograph, based upon research done in Andalusia with special reference to Granada and the Sacro Monte during the years 1959-1970, is a scholarly contribution to anthropological studies. It is all the more valuable because it analyzes the life of the sedentary Gypsies of the Sacro Monte at the crucial moment of transition between pre-Civil War Granada and the Granada of recent years.

To anyone who has traveled in Spain and seen the Gypsies of Andalusia in their Sacro Monte caves, or engaged in flamenco dancing and singing in hotels and nightclubs, or encountered small nomadic caravans along the road, this study rings true. Gypsy culture has been a subject of great interest in the Western world for centuries. Gypsies and Gypsy ways have been written about, praised, disparaged, legislated against, and supported by patrons, but social scientists have made few serious studies of them and their way of life. The authors of this case study, an anthropologist and a psychologist, are to be praised both for their attention to the historical dimension of Gypsy culture and for their ability to observe directly and interview relevantly.

This case study moves from the general to the particular and back to the general. It is about Gypsy culture in the more abstract sense of cultural themes and history as well as about individual Gypsies and their responses in particular situations. It deals with the romantic and creative aspects of Gypsy culture, but it also provides insight into the immediate problems of existence faced by a people who have lived by their wits and by their art in a frequently very hostile environment. It is unique not only because anthropological and psychological methods and interpretations are combined and because history, cultural themes, and Gypsies as living people are dealt with, but also because we are treated to that rare event in ethnography—when the people studied state their views of the culture of the ethnographer. That the views are not entirely flattering gives the reader a better understanding of both Andalusian Gypsies and American culture.

Though the authors are clearly deeply impressed by the quality and vitality of traditional Gypsy culture, they are also concerned with the ways in which it 1s changing and adapting in response to contemporary pressures. But in their change, still, Gypsies do not become uniform or ordinary. They continue to view themselves as separate from others. This sense of separateness is something important for all of us to understand since it is in this sense that human beings have always found their pasts and their futures.