Tsiganologie: The expert view of the “Gypsy question” in France

This article explores tsiganologie, a form of expert knowledge about the Tsiganes (Gypsies) that developed in France after the Second World War. To do so, I take as a case study the Études Tsiganes Association, founded in Paris in 1949, which became the centre of production and dissemination of suc...

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Main Author: Begoña Barrera
Format: Article
Language:Catalan
Published: Universitat de Barcelona 2022-11-01
Series:Cercles: revista d'Història Cultural
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/cercles/article/view/41085
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author Begoña Barrera
author_facet Begoña Barrera
author_sort Begoña Barrera
collection DOAJ
description This article explores tsiganologie, a form of expert knowledge about the Tsiganes (Gypsies) that developed in France after the Second World War. To do so, I take as a case study the Études Tsiganes Association, founded in Paris in 1949, which became the centre of production and dissemination of such knowledge in France. It is argued that tsiganologie can be understood as a territoire savant and that the academics and amateurs who shaped it constituted an epistemic community with the authority to establish the scientific, social, cultural and political meaning of Tsigane issues. The discourse of the tsiganologues is examined, revealing how much of it they owed to nineteenth-century thought and showing how they moulded their strategies to the intellectual context of the 1950s and 1960s. Section I provides an overview of the background to this expert knowledge from the end of the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth; section II focuses on the foundation of Études Tsiganes and its intellectual activity during the first two decades of its existence, and section III, on its rivalry with the Romani movement (which arose in the early 1960s) and the way that it affected tsiganologie.
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spelling doaj.art-c02adef06ca54210a1bbb1020c0b33132022-12-22T04:20:45ZcatUniversitat de BarcelonaCercles: revista d'Història Cultural1139-01581699-74682022-11-0125Tsiganologie: The expert view of the “Gypsy question” in FranceBegoña Barrera0University of Seville This article explores tsiganologie, a form of expert knowledge about the Tsiganes (Gypsies) that developed in France after the Second World War. To do so, I take as a case study the Études Tsiganes Association, founded in Paris in 1949, which became the centre of production and dissemination of such knowledge in France. It is argued that tsiganologie can be understood as a territoire savant and that the academics and amateurs who shaped it constituted an epistemic community with the authority to establish the scientific, social, cultural and political meaning of Tsigane issues. The discourse of the tsiganologues is examined, revealing how much of it they owed to nineteenth-century thought and showing how they moulded their strategies to the intellectual context of the 1950s and 1960s. Section I provides an overview of the background to this expert knowledge from the end of the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth; section II focuses on the foundation of Études Tsiganes and its intellectual activity during the first two decades of its existence, and section III, on its rivalry with the Romani movement (which arose in the early 1960s) and the way that it affected tsiganologie. https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/cercles/article/view/41085TsiganologieRomani Studiesepistemologyracismcolonialism
spellingShingle Begoña Barrera
Tsiganologie: The expert view of the “Gypsy question” in France
Cercles: revista d'Història Cultural
Tsiganologie
Romani Studies
epistemology
racism
colonialism
title Tsiganologie: The expert view of the “Gypsy question” in France
title_full Tsiganologie: The expert view of the “Gypsy question” in France
title_fullStr Tsiganologie: The expert view of the “Gypsy question” in France
title_full_unstemmed Tsiganologie: The expert view of the “Gypsy question” in France
title_short Tsiganologie: The expert view of the “Gypsy question” in France
title_sort tsiganologie the expert view of the gypsy question in france
topic Tsiganologie
Romani Studies
epistemology
racism
colonialism
url https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/cercles/article/view/41085
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