Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I will propose a structural analysis of the kinship of a Romanian Roma community. From this case study, I will discuss, the relation, usually accepted in the anthropology of kinship, between endogamy and marriage preferences.

Paper long abstract:

In my communication I will explore, in the case of the Roma, the hypothesis proposed by Enric Porqueres I Gené, that the specific features of marriage within a kinship network operate to safeguard ties around and within this network, thus ensuring its transmission down through the generations. I took, as a case study, the kinship network of the Cioroman. This Roma group is living in eastern Romania and present themselves as a community of Romane Roma (true Roma), practising a form of marriage that is specific for being endogamous and governed by autonomous rules.

Comparing data from archives with genealogical information collected from the people, I reconstructed descending family trees starting from the members of the network of Romani family heads recorded collectively in the 1920s. I have thus identified the ties of consanguinity and alliance of approximately 1000 people over 6 generations. This data have been processed using the kinship-processing software PUCK (Program for the Use and Computation of Kinship data).

From the census of matrimonial circuits, I will show, firstly that, despite the density of their family ties, the Cioroman have no marriage preferences. They have a complex kinship structure that unfolds preferentially within a small group. Secondly, I will show that the ethnic endogamy claimed by the Cioraman concerns only half of marriages. This imperfect endogamy is structurally able to bridge, generation after generation all branches of the kinship network. The Cioroman thus invented an original way to remain kin in an open world.