Resources
Svinia in Black and White: Slovak Roma and their Neighbours
David Z. Scheffel
This book is about a Romani settlement in eastern Slovakia. It is a community that has grown to become one of the largest and most problematic townships of rural Roma in the entire district. The dark-skinned squatters on the margins of Svinia are segregated from the surrounding society by means of physical and social barriers entrenched in local ideology and enforced by rules and conventions reminiscent of apartheid.
David Scheffel offers a detailed ethnographic account of the social, cultural, and historical circumstances that have encouraged and supported inter-ethnic inequality in the region. In the process, he demonstrates the complexity of what is often referred to as Europe's"Gypsy problem" with passion and sensitivity.
University of Toronto Press
David Z. Scheffel
This book is about a Romani settlement in eastern Slovakia. It is a community that has grown to become one of the largest and most problematic townships of rural Roma in the entire district. The dark-skinned squatters on the margins of Svinia are segregated from the surrounding society by means of physical and social barriers entrenched in local ideology and enforced by rules and conventions reminiscent of apartheid.
David Scheffel offers a detailed ethnographic account of the social, cultural, and historical circumstances that have encouraged and supported inter-ethnic inequality in the region. In the process, he demonstrates the complexity of what is often referred to as Europe's"Gypsy problem" with passion and sensitivity.
University of Toronto Press
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The Gypsies of Svinia
National Film Board of Canada
Moved by a sense of outrage, David Scheffel, a Canadian anthropologist, is determined to help the impoverished Roma (Gypsies) rebuild their community in the eastern Slovakian village of Svinia.
So-called "white" Svinia is a picturesque, typical Slovak village with well-kept homes, gardens, a store and a school. Some 300 metres past the last home is "black" Svinia, where the Roma live.
In lives characterized by decay and despair, the Roma dwell in squalid tenement blocks and one-room huts of sticks and mud--with no clean water or sewage facilities and with little hope of employment. Many Svinians, whose homes and gardens are regularly burglarized by the desperate Roma, have lost all patience and sympathy. In terrible fits of rage, some praise Hitler's policy of trying to exterminate them.
Throughout Eastern Europe, the painful transition from communism to democracy has relegated the Roma to the farthest, most grotesque margins of society. The Gypsies of Svinia is a testament to the firm resolve of Scheffel and the Roma to make things better.
National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
Moved by a sense of outrage, David Scheffel, a Canadian anthropologist, is determined to help the impoverished Roma (Gypsies) rebuild their community in the eastern Slovakian village of Svinia.
So-called "white" Svinia is a picturesque, typical Slovak village with well-kept homes, gardens, a store and a school. Some 300 metres past the last home is "black" Svinia, where the Roma live.
In lives characterized by decay and despair, the Roma dwell in squalid tenement blocks and one-room huts of sticks and mud--with no clean water or sewage facilities and with little hope of employment. Many Svinians, whose homes and gardens are regularly burglarized by the desperate Roma, have lost all patience and sympathy. In terrible fits of rage, some praise Hitler's policy of trying to exterminate them.
Throughout Eastern Europe, the painful transition from communism to democracy has relegated the Roma to the farthest, most grotesque margins of society. The Gypsies of Svinia is a testament to the firm resolve of Scheffel and the Roma to make things better.
National Film Board of Canada
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Ethnic micropolitics in Eastern Europe: A case study from Slovakia's Gypsy archipelago
David Z. Scheffel – Anthropology Today
David Z. Scheffel – Anthropology Today
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David Scheffel and the Svinia Settlement
Anthropologica 53.1, 2011.
Anthropologica 53.1, 2011.
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"The Roma of Eastern Europe"
Cultural Anthropology, January 2012
Cultural Anthropology, January 2012
Cultural Anthropology in a Globalizing World
Barbara Miller
Pearson, 2012
Barbara Miller
Pearson, 2012