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Research Highlights 5
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July 2001

Dispersed Peoples
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Dispersed people groups (diaspora) present special problems of identification, which often indicate even more complex issues for strategy developement. They are often known by names they are called by the dominant ethnic groups. Thus the same people group may be hidden under multiple names in the database.

Gypsy/Dom
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E xample -- The DOM people in the Middle East. The Dom are one branch of the people cluster commonly called "Gypsy" in English. The other major branch, called Rom or Romany, are well known in Europe and America.

We find the Dom listed under names like
(1) Zott, Nawar, Ghagar (Arabic names in various places),
(2) Ghorbati (Persian) and
(3) Kurbat (Arabic in Syria).

The Dom Research Center lists 44 names by which this people group are called, across 24 countries! The Dom further have individual tribe and clan names.

The Dom are highly adaptable culturally and linguistically. Some no longer speak Domari, their original language. Many speak Arabic or Persian as a native language. Thus communication strategy has to consider separate language strategies.

Even in all their diversity, the Dom seem to still maintain a common identity. In this regard it would seem best to consider the Dom as one large people group, listed by language, with many segments defined by guild, tribal patterns or other cultural characteristics. Thus all the entries of these peoples will be modified to the name Dom, with alternative names Gypsy and the dominant local name.

Identification
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Visit the Dom Research Center for suggestions on identification and grouping that might apply to your people group.

For more on how to define a "people," check: What is a People Group?     Cities and People Groups

Worldview and Communication
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Underlying all our research and media training is the worldview of the people groups. We find most peoples of the world are not literate and abstract in the western sense, but oral and relational in culture and learning style.

Early cultural experiences set the basic patterns for understanding the world around us, and for dealing with later experiences. Significant shared experiences with our family and other close society become the basis of worldview and the social patterns for living.

Read more about worldview and experience.

Worldviews change in response to great social or technological changes. This is one reason new people groups come into existence or die out. Cities are a great cooking pot for new cultures and ethnic identities. Worldviews are changing and new worldviews are developing. So worldview discovery never ends.

Read how new people groups develop in response to new conditions.

Many other resources are found in the Strategy Leader Resource Kit.

Additional resources are available on my new publishing site:
Thoughts and Resources

Take a look at the new series: What is Culture?

Please feel free to share this newsletter with others.

Last Updated 03 January 2005

Web Sites
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Please send us your people group web site address.  

- Orville Jenkins (OBJ) < researchguy@iname.com> < orville@jenkins.nu>
Copyright © Orville Boyd Jenkins 2001
Permission given for free download and use for personal and educational purposes. All other rights reserved.