Mission
To research, document, and share the roots of the Roma people with scientific rigour and public accountability.
About us
Who we are
TSOANI is an institution devoted to advanced research in ethnogenesis, cultural memory, and the critical analysis of historical discourses, specialising in the scientific study of the origin and historical formation of the Roma people in Europe. Our work is grounded in interdisciplinary methodologies that integrate comparative historiography, population genetics, historical linguistics, cultural anthropology, critical archival studies, and analytical genealogy.
What guides us
Community first
Roma voices lead the work. Research is done with communities, not about them, and results return to them first.
Integrity
Sources cited, methods published, uncertainty stated. We correct our work openly when new evidence appears.
Our methodology
Comparative historiography
Identifying biases, anachronisms, and ideological projections in modern literature.
Population genetics
Analysing the internal heterogeneity of European Roma groups and the presence of Mediterranean, Levantine, and Western European lineages.
Historical linguistics
Documenting dialects and comparing core Romani vocabulary and grammar with Indo-Aryan languages.
Cultural anthropology
Reading lived memory, craft, music, and oral testimony alongside the archive.
Critical archival studies
Transcribing and cross-referencing chronicles, tax registers, court records, and parish archives.
Analytical genealogy
Tracing family and community lineages as a check against written sources.
Our starting point
We begin from a fundamental epistemological principle: the modern official narrative on Roma origin — formulated between the 18th and 20th centuries — does not meet contemporary methodological standards. It is a paradigm built on partial linguistic comparisons, unverified inferences, and selective readings of sources, which fails to explain the real complexity of the migratory, cultural, and population processes documented in Europe since the Late Middle Ages.
For this reason, TSOANI develops research aimed at the epistemic revision of that model and the construction of an alternative interpretive framework, based exclusively on verifiable evidence. Our approach combines critical historiography with population genetics and other disciplines to produce a more rigorous, accountable account of Roma ethnogenesis.