LL-L "Nomads" 2002.08.23 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 23.AUG.2002 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: Pat Reynolds <pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Nomads" 2002.08.23 (04) [E]

In message <3D664C27.3E26EBDD at lowlands-l.net>, Lowlands-L
<admin at lowlands-l.net> writes
>Perhaps someone can tell me if there are any indigenous nomadic
>/travelling
>communities of a Germanic origin which still exist in modern Central or
>Eastern Europe today who are not related to the wider Roma Gypsy
>peoples  ?

Are the people who work the shipping on the major European rivers a
community? (Interesting word, 'community'!)  I've no idea if they live
full-time on the rivers, as people used to live on canals in Britain,
or whether they live there only when working, nor how they relate to
other ethnic groups (if they _are_ an ethnic group or groups
themselves).

In Britain, the circus and showmen (i.e people who work on travelling
fairs) communities are related to the Gypsy community - is this the case
throughout Europe?

Are there New Age Travellers in the area you are interested in?

Best wishes to all,

Pat

--
Pat Reynolds
pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk
   "It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years
time"
   (T. Pratchett)

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Nomads

In many areas of Germany (including areas that are now parts of Polands
and Russia), there used to be dirt-poor, landless, migratory rural
workers, or farmhands.  Even though they were not actually an ethnic
group (although many of them were of at least partial Slavic origin,
many of them Kashubian), they tended to have ties with each other and
thus were some sort of community, a network through which they learned
where their services might be needed.  They would work for land-owning
farmers, sometimes for tenant farmers, who would house and feed them for
the duration of, say, harvest time.  These would include children,
sometimes *very* young children, in other words entire families.  (Our
American friends will no doubt be reminded of Mexican farmworkers in the
USA, and I believe this is a fair comparison.)  I think this German
situation gradually came to an end after Bismark et al. introduced a
social security/services system and improved living conditions of the
lowest social strata.  My paternal grandmother, born at the border
between what is now Poland and Kaliningrad (Russia), still lived through
this as a child of "potato workers."  Each child in that family was born
in a different place.

Also in Germany, including Northern Germany, there used to be itinerant
craftsmen, usually young men who had no steady home.  In earlier times,
a period of migration was expected of them, to acquire experience,
skills and money to start their own workshops, but oftentimes this
became a permanent arrangement due to lack of funds.  These artisans had
their various guilds, and these tended to provide networking and
protection.  Typically, the various artisan guilds would have their own
jargons and attires.  I believe the last group to give this up were the
carpenters.  When I was a small child, I would see them trecking about,
with their wide-brimmed hats, their extremely widely flared corduroy
pants, their long earrings in one ear, and their bundles and tool boxes.

Also, in coastal regions there were the seafarers, a loose guild whose
members were men (including both of my grandfathers) who, before
eventually settling down, would hang out in ports to wait for what in
Lowlands Saxon (Low German) is called a _Höör_ ~ _Hüür_ ~ _Heuer_
(cognate of English _hire_) on a ship, jumping from ship to ship in
whatever port they happened to be.  (Their wages were also called _Höör_
~ _Hüür_ ~ _Heuer_.)  These tended to be international gangs or groups,
and they, too, had their own jargons, in Germany Lowlands Saxon with
heavy English admixture (of which you can still find remnants in sea
shanties).  I assume such folks could be found in other Lowlands
countries as well, such as the ports of England.

Cheers!
Reinhard/Ron

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