{"id":1120,"date":"2025-05-13T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/?p=1120"},"modified":"2025-05-13T14:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T14:03:08","slug":"threads-of-romani-childhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Threads of Romani Childhood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On this sixteenth-century tapestry<\/a>, two worlds collide. Woven in Flanders (modern-day Belgium), this masterpiece of Gothic tapestry once adorned the walls of the d\u2019Effiat palace in Claremont-Ferrand, France. In 1937, the tapestry reached its current home, the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire. For its original owners, this tapestry would have provided insulation, a splash of color, and entertainment<\/em>. Tapestries told stories. In the upper left, hunters chase a stag; in the lower right, lavishly dressed aristocrats inspect the spoils of the hunt. In the lower left, a very different group makes a dramatic entrance: a traveling band of Romani men, women, and children<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Roma, a diasporic people with ancestry in northern India, first immigrated into western Europe in the early fifteenth century. Late medieval Europeans described this newly-arrived people as foreign-born lords in exile, Christian penitents, and itinerant diviners. By the turn of the sixteenth century, however, these more neutral attitudes toward the Roma were giving way to new stereotypes. The Roma, henceforth branded by outsiders as \u201cGypsies,\u201d have fought ever since against hostility and state violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image 2: Detail, lower-left quadrant, \u201cThe Visit of the Gypsies\u201d (ca. 1510). Manchester, NH,\nCurrier Museum of Art, Currier Funds 1937.7.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The makers of this tapestry – who were not Romani – chose to feature Romani children front and center. What stories do these imagined children tell? On the far left, a Romani mother is carrying two infants on horseback. Just ahead, another mounted Romani woman wrangles a gaggle of three rambunctious toddlers. In contrast to the nobles emerging from their palace on the right, these Romani children paint a striking picture of domestic life lived entirely on the road. Children were more than just burdens, however. In the lower left corner, a young Romani girl assists an adult man by carrying a small parcel. Another girl presents a bowl of porridge to a woman feeding her baby. These children show themselves to be capable members of their itinerant community. More easily missed is the final Romani child at the center of the tapestry, who is stealing the purse of a clueless noblewoman. By depicting the Roma – especially Romani childen – as thieves, the tapestry reinforces an antiziganist stereotype that is unfortunately all too familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through these nine imaginary children, the weavers of this tapestry portrayed the Roma as itinerant and resourceful, but also dangerous. The tapestry thereby captures the spirit that prevailed at the end of the Roma\u2019s medieval \u201cgolden age,\u201d when the Roma served as ambiguous objects of western Europeans\u2019 curiosity, admiration, and prejudice. To understand the Roma and their future, this tapestry suggests, one needed only to observe their children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Lane B. Baker<\/a> (he\/him) is a PhD Candidate in History at Stanford University. He studies tolerance, marginalization, and minority communities in late medieval Europe. At the moment, he is in the final stages of his dissertation on the fifteenth-century immigration of the Roma into the German-speaking world. You can reach him at laneb@stanford.edu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This late Gothic tapestry reveals how Europeans perceived Romani immigrants. Children were at the very heart of it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-childish-things"],"yoast_head":"\nThreads of Romani Childhood - Digital Childhoods<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Threads of Romani Childhood - Digital Childhoods\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This late Gothic tapestry reveals how Europeans perceived Romani immigrants. Children were at the very heart of it!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Digital Childhoods\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-13T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-13T14:03:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Tournai_Tapestry-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1796\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Layla Koch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Layla Koch\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/\",\"name\":\"Threads of Romani Childhood - Digital Childhoods\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Tournai_Tapestry-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-13T14:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-13T14:03:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/#\/schema\/person\/5bb10915b3cc2269d9b67ade73372754\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Tournai_Tapestry-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Tournai_Tapestry-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1796,\"caption\":\"Image 1: \u201cThe Visit of the Gypsies.\u201d Wool and silk, 350.52 \u00d7 487.68 cm (138 \u00d7 192 in). Unknown artists, Flanders (Belgium), ca. 1510. Manchester, NH, Currier Museum of Art, Currier Funds 1937.7.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Threads of Romani Childhood\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/\",\"name\":\"Digital Childhoods\",\"description\":\"DIGITAL CHILDHOODS\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/#\/schema\/person\/5bb10915b3cc2269d9b67ade73372754\",\"name\":\"Layla Koch\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/315fb6384497ec31f00b9bcc7678c0cc7c91dddc1c62a80ea9e7891112ce2a69?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/315fb6384497ec31f00b9bcc7678c0cc7c91dddc1c62a80ea9e7891112ce2a69?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Layla Koch\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/author\/lmkoch\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Threads of Romani Childhood - Digital Childhoods","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Threads of Romani Childhood - Digital Childhoods","og_description":"This late Gothic tapestry reveals how Europeans perceived Romani immigrants. Children were at the very heart of it!","og_url":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/","og_site_name":"Digital Childhoods","article_published_time":"2025-05-13T14:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-13T14:03:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1796,"url":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Tournai_Tapestry-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Layla Koch","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Layla Koch","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/","url":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/","name":"Threads of Romani Childhood - Digital Childhoods","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Tournai_Tapestry-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2025-05-13T14:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-13T14:03:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/#\/schema\/person\/5bb10915b3cc2269d9b67ade73372754"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Tournai_Tapestry-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Tournai_Tapestry-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1796,"caption":"Image 1: \u201cThe Visit of the Gypsies.\u201d Wool and silk, 350.52 \u00d7 487.68 cm (138 \u00d7 192 in). Unknown artists, Flanders (Belgium), ca. 1510. Manchester, NH, Currier Museum of Art, Currier Funds 1937.7."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/threads-of-romani-childhood\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Threads of Romani Childhood"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/#website","url":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/","name":"Digital Childhoods","description":"DIGITAL CHILDHOODS","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/#\/schema\/person\/5bb10915b3cc2269d9b67ade73372754","name":"Layla Koch","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/315fb6384497ec31f00b9bcc7678c0cc7c91dddc1c62a80ea9e7891112ce2a69?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/315fb6384497ec31f00b9bcc7678c0cc7c91dddc1c62a80ea9e7891112ce2a69?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Layla Koch"},"url":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/author\/lmkoch\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1120"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1132,"href":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions\/1132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}