The Ursari (generally read as "bear leaders" or "bear handlers"; from the , meaning "bear"; singular: ursar; Bulgarian: урсари, ursari) or Richinara are the traditionally nomadic occupational group of animal trainers among the Romani people.
An endogamous category originally drawing the bulk of its income from busking performances in which they used dancing bears, usually brown bears and, in several instances, Old World monkeys. They have largely become settled after the 1850s. The Ursari form an important part of the Roma community in Romania, where they are one of the 40 tribal groups, Centrul de Documentare şi Informare despre Minorităţile din Europa de Sud-Est, Romii din România , at the Erdélyi Magyar Adatbank , retrieved June 25, 2007 as well as notable segments of the Bulgarian Roma population and of the one in Moldova. They also form a sizable part of the Roma present in Serbia and in Western European countries such as the Netherlands and Italy.
The word Ursari may also refer to a dialect of Balkan Romani, as spoken in Romania and Moldova,Balkan Romani at Ethnologue.com, retrieved June 23, 2007"Roma – Sub Ethnic Groups", at Rombase, retrieved June 23, 2007 although it is estimated that most Ursari, like the Boyash, speak Romanian as their native language.Angus M. Fraser, The Gypsies, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 1995, p.45-48, 226. There is no scholarly consensus on whether Ursari belong to the Sinti subgroup of the Roma people or to the other half of the Roma population.Lucassen, p.84, 86, 90 A Romanian poll conducted in 2004 among 347 Roma found that 150 referred to themselves as "Ursari" (or 43.2%, and the largest single group). Mihai Surdu, Sarcina şi căsătoria timpurie în cazul tinerelor roma , at UNICEF Romania, retrieved June 24, 2007
The Romanian-speaking Roma bear or monkey handlers in Bulgaria, called mechkari (мечкари), maymunari, or ursari, are occasionally seen as a separate community or as a distinct part of the Boyash population,Elena Marushiakova, Vesselin Popov, "Ethnosocial Structure of the Roma of Bulgaria", in The Patrin Web Journal: Romani Culture and History, retrieved June 24, 2007 as are persons identified as Ursari in Italy. Scheda progetto per l'impiego di volontari in Servizio Civile in Italia. Pijats Romanò , at the Centro Servizi per il Volontariato, retrieved June 24, 2007 The Coşniţari (or koshnichari) group, present on both sides of the Danube (in both Romania and Bulgaria), is believed to be a segment of the Ursari. Delia Grigore, Curs de antropologie şi folclor rrom , hosted by Romanothan, retrieved June 24, 2007 Other such Eastern European groups, although linked by profession, speak different languages and dialects, and are considered to be not a part of the Ursari; they include the Medvedara in Greece, Ričkara in Slovakia, The Muslim Arixhinj in Albania and the Muslim Ayjides in the Istanbul area of Turkey.
History
Early migrations and slavery
Groups of bear-handlers are known to have existed during the population's transit through the Byzantine Empire, as early as the 12th century, when they are mentioned in connection with the Athinganoi (Roma people) by Theodore Balsamon. In later decades, they were probably among the people collectively referred to as "Egyptians".
The Ursari formed part of the slave population in the Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and АвЙфWallachia) before the abolitions of the 1840s and 1850s. With the Boyash (including the gold-prospecting Zlătari), the Kalderash, and groups of Roma smiths, Ursari formed the category of lăieşi, who, unlike vătraşi slaves, were allowed to carry on with a nomadic lifestyle (being required by their boyar masters to pay various benefits in exchange for the permission).Neagu Djuvara, Între Orient şi Occident. Ţările române la începutul epocii moderne, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995, p.267-269. Emmanuelle Pons, De la robie la asimilare , p.18-19, at the Erdélyi Magyar Adatbank , retrieved June 23, 2007
By the early decades of the 19th century, most of the state-owned Roma were lăieşi, as opposed to private-owned ones.Édouard Antoine Thouvenel, La Hongrie et la Valachie, Arthus Betrand, Paris, 1840, p.242-243 The lăieşi were required to contribute an annual sum to the treasuries of Wallachia and Moldavia; Édouard Antoine Thouvenel, a French diplomat who visited Wallachia during the period, indicated that, for Ursari families, this sum amounted to between twenty and thirty piasters, and it is documented that the Boyash and the Ursari paid equivalent fees.
Like other nomadic Roma, Ursari are known to have travelled in large tribal groups during the 20th century, Eugen Şendrea, "Distracţii de tîrgoveţi", in Ziarul de Bacău, May 26, 2007; retrieved June 24, 2007 although other sources indicate that they preferred to organize themselves on a tight and selective family-based structure.Henry Baerlein (ed.), Romanian Oasis: A Further Anthology on Romania and Her People, Frederick Muller Ltd., London, 1948, p.202 Ursari people and the Boyash-proper traditionally accompanied the Kalderash on their travels to Rumelia, contributing to the birth of the Mechkara community.
Thouvenel described the group's "miserable condition", and, in reference to their handling of brown bears, wrote: "[...] they reunite to give chase to [the bears], whom they domesticate after capturing them in their youth, or whom they render unable to harm them. Bears in the Carpathians are, after all, much smaller and of a less ferocious nature than those in the "North"; their leaders train them with relative ease and run around from village to village in order to collect a few para as a result of peasant curiosity".
Also according to Thouvenel, Ursari were known for "veterinary skills", which, he argued, "the superstition of people in the countryside attributes to the possession of a magic art". In addition to bear handling, the community would occasionally trade in wild animals (specifically bear cubs), and was known for keeping and training monkeys.Fonseca, p.181 Female members of the community were known for their practice of fortune-telling.
Emancipation
Speaking during the late 1880s, the historian and politician Mihail Kogălniceanu, who was responsible for the 1855 abolition of slavery in Moldavia under Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica, claimed that: "aside from the [other] lăieşi Gypsies, who still live in part in Gypsy camps, and Ursari, who are presently working in the taming of wild beasts, but are nevertheless involved in working the land, almost all of the other classes of Gypsies have blended into the larger mass of the nation, and are only told apart by their swarthy and Asian-like faces and the vividness of their imagination". Mihail Kogălniceanu, Dezrobirea ţiganilor, ştergerea privilegiilor boiereşti, emanciparea ţăranilor (wikisource)
Following the creation of a Romanian Principality, Ursari nonetheless remained a presence associated with busking and fairs, especially with those held in Bucharest and provincial cities such as Bacău.Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria Bucureștilor. Din cele mai vechi timpuri pînă în zilele noastre, Editura Pentru Literatură, Bucharest, 1966, p.380. As early as the rule of Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza, they formed a staple of such spectacles, alongside the music-playing Lăutari, the Călușari, and freak shows. At around the same time, they included a section of zavragii, smiths who worked as day laborers. Also during the late 19th century, the Ursari came to be attested in Imperial Russian-ruled Bessarabia, where the local population referred to them and to the lăieși in general as șătrași ("people living on campsites").
Sometime after 1850, groups of Ursari, Kalderash and Lovari, most likely coming from Austro-Hungarian regions and Bosnia, moved westwards, and were mentioned for the first time as present in the North Brabant and other areas in the Netherlands (where their descendants still live).Lucassen, p.81-82, 89Nikola Rašić, Romanies in Netherlands , at the KPC Groep , retrieved June 23, 2007 A similar move originated in Serbia, around Kragujevac, with Boyash and Ursari moving into northern and central Italy. In the Netherlands, central authorities reacted vehemently to the presence of Roma, labeling Ursari and the others with the loaded term "Gypsies"; the reaction of local authorities was more calm, and allowed Ursari to blend into Dutch society, even though most members of the latter community intended to settle in other areas.Lucassen, p.82, 83
Before and after the Porajmos In time, a significant number of Ursari joined circuses,"Carneys and Street Artists", at Rombase, retrieved June 23, 2007 while many others began manufacturing and trading bone objects and leather (as, respectively, Pieptănari and Ciurari), or associating with the Lăutari.Improving Education for Roma Children , hosted by the Center Education 2000+ , retrieved June 23, 2007 The bears were taught to make dancing moves to a tambourine, or trained to walk upright and perform tricks such as leaning on canes and rolling over. The use of iron rods and nose rings in the taming process, as well as other such practices, rose attention from animal welfare advocates, and have been the subject of criticism from as early as the 1920s, when Germany forbade the Ursari's trade. It has been reported that bear training involved burning the paws of cubs to the rhythm of music.Fonseca, p.182
During the early stages of World War II, as part of the repressive measures ordered by the Iron Guard, the Minister of the Interior of the Romanian Legionary Government, Constantin Petrovicescu, passed an order preventing Ursari from performing with bears in cities, towns, or villages. Petre Petcuț, Samudaripenul (Holocaustul) rromilor în România , at Idee Communication , retrieved June 24, 2007 The official explanation for the measure was that such patterns of movement were helping to spread typhus. Over the following years, under Ion Antonescu's regime, members of the Ursari community were among the Roma people deported to Transnistria, as part of Romania's share in the Holocaust (see also Romania during World War II and Porajmos).Fonseca, p.149
After World War II, interdictions on performing with bears were legislated throughout the Eastern Bloc. In Communist Romania, large groups of Ursari performers were prevented from entering cities, and, under both Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Nicolae Ceaușescu, nomadic Roma were subject to settlement policies Margareta Fleșner, Ioaneta Vintileanu, "Conflictele locale din județul Giurgiu și implicarea forțelor de poliție", in Ioaneta Vintileanu, Gábor Ádám, Poliția și comunitățile multiculturale din România, hosted by Centrul de Resurse pentru Diversitate Etnoculturală, retrieved June 25, 2007Fonseca, p.150 (many were reportedly resettled as early as their return from Transnistria).
Post-Communism
In April–June 1991, following the Revolution of 1989, Ursari in several localities of Romania's Giurgiu County — Bolintin Deal, Ogrezeni and Bolintin Vale — were the target of ethnic violence. Ursari people were chased away, and many of their lodgings were burned to the ground.Fonseca, p.148-155 In Bolintin Deal, where the first such actions took place, this came in retaliation for the murder of a Romanian student, Cristian Melinte, by a young Ursar hitchhiker who was later sentenced to 20 years in prison. Magda Bărăscu, "Romii din Bolintin vînează fondurile UE", in Evenimentul Zilei, April 20, 2005, hosted by Euractiv.ro ; retrieved June 25, 2007Fonseca, p.150-151