Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
moved into a house on the coast to the north of Rome, continued to frequent
magliana and relied on the camps, both authorized and not, in that area. in gen-
eral, he made use of the settlements that were far from built-up areas to sort
out the metals that he had collected on the coast and sell them on to his trusted
metal dealer in magliana. he would seize the opportunity to “sit together” with
the Roma of the locality (some of them related to him) and perhaps pursue some
sort of business, making good use of the possibilities opened up by his rooted-
ness in two places.21 frequent visits paid to relatives who live far away similarly
offer an opportunity to transact various business deals.22 The same thing occurs
when there are other types of mobility that make it more difficult for individual
nuclear families to maintain continuity with a territory: for example, when they
move to another italian city or abroad for an extended period of time, maybe
even for years. with this system in place, someone who returns to Rome after
living elsewhere easily resumes his place in the territory, as if the territory were
still familiar.
for individual family nuclei, their own relational networks (both those be-
tween Roma and the ramifications of such networks in the local population) are
the key to familiarity and maintenance of contact with a territory. in particular,
continuity within an area seems to be achieved by means of a wide Roma network
held together mainly (but not solely) by ties of kinship and friendship and bring-
ing together a range of families originating from various towns in the former
Yugoslavia. This network changes constantly, its composition alters as much as
its configuration, but it is precisely this flexibility that confers its characteristic
persistence, going beyond the vicissitudes of individuals or single families. in
short, the “baton” is preserved within the Roma world: it may be passed from one
person to another, but it is not lost.
The Roma system of having a “base” also permits new arrivals to put down
roots rapidly in a territory that is unknown to them, as is demonstrated by previ-
ous migration experiences. migration from bosnia provides a good example: the
fact that in italy there were Roma families, especially in cities like Rome, mi-
lan, Naples, and florence, to whom the Vlasenicakuri and the bijeljincuri were
in some way connected meant that those newly arriving from bosnia settled in
quickly and easily. many Roma—according to what they have told me—were
helped to settle in by those who were already living in Rome. These people taught
them important sentences in italian and a basic socioanthropological knowl-
edge, enabling them to survive and make money; they also put their relational
networks at the disposal of the new arrivals. at the same time, those who started
out from bosnia left a network in place there guaranteeing that contacts would be
kept up, good use would be made of the opportunities opened up by the rooted-
ness in both old and new establishments, and a possible return to bosnia would
prove less traumatic.
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