ENGAGEMENT FOR INFORMED ANTHROPOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE ON GYPSIES

Abstract

Many scholars of culture and society of Roma were more or less involved in challenging the misrepresentations of Roma. This paper describes and analyzes the author's engagement in presenting informed and accurate contemporary anthropological studies of and with Roma to different publics in Slovenia. First, the author explored different definitions of engagement within the anthropology (public anthropology, engaged anthropology, publicly engaged anthropology development anthropology). Second, the text defines different fields of knowledge about the Roma (Romology, Romani Studies, anthropology of Gypsies). The main author’s point is that the engagement with accurate and informed transmission of anthropological knowledge about the Roma is urgently needed. Otherwise scholars may risk reproducing or at least contributing to current scientific racism in social science and the humanities.