Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
by building up and maintaining relationships with those who live that space as
their own place; that is to say, relationships where the stereotype makes way for
a person with a name, a history, and an identity.17 furthermore, we should not
underestimate the fact that some self-representations linked to the field of pro-
curement (hannerz [1980] 1992) could lead to a “relational short-circuit,” since
they would be difficult to reconcile with the self-representations that the Roma
perform in their relations with neighbors (relations that aim mainly toward the
acknowledgment of personal individuality and respectability).
we have seen how in the daily crossings of the Roma women in trastevere
there is an interplay between acting out a stereotype and claiming an individu-
ality beyond “role discrimination,” between creating a state of need and flaunt-
ing one's own respectability, between pursuing one's own activities regardless of
possible repercussions on relationships with a territory and wishing at least to be
tolerated and to maintain some special relationships. it is worth noticing, never-
theless, that ambivalence of roles, in the sense posited by hannerz ([1980] 1992)
of “targeted situational involvements,” is to be found also in residential territo-
ries, if only to a lesser degree. in magliana, indeed, the women (sometimes, and
discreetly) have a look at the refuse containers like the Romanian Roma, whom
they criticize for rummaging “like tramps” right in the neighborhood where they
live, or beg in the district, though only from their own special contacts.18 as well,
in their settlements, the Roma pursue the noisy and dirty business of separating
and selecting metals. Their vans pass through magliana every day, laden with
scrap iron, on their way to the large metal dealers in the area (where the owner
will pay a better price, be less likely to cheat when he weighs the metal, and where
one is unlikely to run into any Roma with whom there is “bad blood”). even the
“rule” of maintaining good relations with neighbors is sometimes disregarded, as
when the Roma drive through the district with their radios blaring at top volume,
revving the engine defiantly, and talking very loudly in the neighborhood streets
when returning to the camp late in the evening.
mobility and Rootedness
having highlighted the dimension of stability, we now go on to consider what
in common parlance seems to be the antithesis of stability: mobility. The Roma
move for a number of reasons: harassment by the police, deteriorating relations
with the quarter's residents, a conflict with other Roma who live in the same area,
some more tempting opportunity in another place, or simply to visit a relative
who lives a long way away. my purpose in these final pages is to demonstrate the
link between the various forms of mobility and stability that mark the presence
of the Vlasenicakuri and bijeljincuri in Rome.
a predominant form of mobility, currently characteristic in particular of
certain Vlasenicakuri families, concerns patterns of movement within the urban
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