ABSTRACT
Contemporary official data from Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland clearly show that peripatetic 'Gypsies' no longer exist in these countries. The dominating contemporary theoretical orientation on Roma groups also concentrates mainly on the relationship of 'Gypsies' with non-'Gypsies', and explanations of their patterns of ethnicity have been attempted using theories of cultural ecology. 'Gypsy' peripatetics found themselves in a radically new position after the basic ideological and structural changes which occurred in these countries after the Second World War. Socialist economics increasingly stressed the concept of production rather than that of exchange; productive work, treated as a means of multiplying goods as well as a way to shape a socialist attitude, took on an ideological meaning. The mechanism of compulsory assimilation took on a complex character of mutually dependent elements. The earliest cooperatives were based on the former tabor units; therefore the membership consisted mainly of individuals related by blood or marriage.
