Nomad Gypsies in Los Angeles: patterns of livelihood

Members of a distinctive Gypsy culture are found in many parts of the contemporary world. Although their common Gypsy origin has been traced back over a thousand years to India, enough differences have evolved among Gypsies during their world-wide migrations to enable some scholars to identify Gypsy sub-culture. Nomad Gypsies have been distinguished among all Gypsies now living in the United States. Further distinctions have been made between different kinds of Nomads. Macvaya culture-bearers are Nomad fortune-telling specialists. They have been able to organize themselves and other Gypsies into complex socio-economic unions in many American cities. The appearance of these unions has coincided with the increasing impracticability of many traditional Nomad patterns of livelihood in the progressively urbanized and mechanized United States. It is possible that Nomad chiefdoms have evolved in American cities from decentralized nomadic bands that once roamed in rural America. Explicit territorial behavior is a phenomenon that can be associated with the growth of the urban Nomad chiefdom. The study indicates that the City of Los Angeles has been the terri­tory of a Nomad chiefdom. In Los Angeles a local economic union was operational for over thirty years, until 1964. Its eventual des­truction was a calculated effort by policemen seeking to enforce an anti-fortune-telling ordinance in the City. This ordinance attempts to protect from Gypsy fraud the superstitious aged, minority and low income persons that make up the fortune-teller's market. Notwithstanding police pressures, Nomad fortune-tellers continue to operate in the City indicating that fortune-telling, as an occupational trait-complex, is an integral part of the Macvaya Nomad culture system.