Abstract
‘Hermanation’ ‘HERMANATION’, Hanns Weltzel explains (J. Gypsy Lore Soc., Ser. 3, 18, 4; 1939), is derived by the gypsies of Germany from the German ‘harmonieren’, in the sense of ‘getting on well with’. If this is correct, it is remarkable that the Sinti should have adopted a German term for so characteristic and ancient an institution. It is centuries old among German gypsies or rather among Sinti only. It is the basic principle in the structure of their unity. It is the union of a small group of gypsies, in which the number of families is not limited, and the leader is not a chief, but a ‘dispenser of justice’, or ‘judge’. The Hermanation also applies to a definite localized group. Most of the gypsies of central Germany belong to one. The ‘Kartepoor’ is so called from the beautiful tail feather of the moor-cock, which hunters often wear in their hat. Members of one Hermanation would not eat with those belonging to another. Sometimes the term is used as a synonym for a meeting, when it is equivalent to Tsillu, the gathering at which matters concerning gypsy law are discussed, and marriages, dispensations of justice, cases of outlawry, and the like are settled. From this it follows that Hermanation denotes a grouping of families which, on the basis of a bond of relationship, subjects itself to its senior member and his colleagues in matters of definite custom. The ‘judge’, who was in no sense a ‘chief’ or ‘king’, had to be a person of reputation and unblemished character (in the gypsy sense), of imposing appearance, and of pure gypsy blood. Supplementary information concerns ceremonial purity, in which taboos reluting to women are stressed: for example, the sole of a woman's shoe renders things unclean, and hence it is never mended; while among the Krauses a woman carrying a jug or bucket must hold it away from her body.
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Research Items. Nature 144, 789–791 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144789a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144789a0