England or Uruguay? The persistence of place and the myth of the placeless Gypsy

Abstract

The Roma are often depicted as not only not having a place, but not caring about place. I refer to this common association as the 'myth of the placeless Gypsy' . There is a need to challenge the myth of the placeless Gypsy as these types of representations further stigmatise the Roma community. To accomplish this I examine the geographies underpinning the Romani Studies discourse in order to see how the Roma's relationship to place is constructed. In this article, I examine four ethnographies about the Roma to highlight how academic representations help to further reinforce the idea that Roma are placeless. I find that even in in-depth studies, authors simultaneously reproduce and deny the myth of the placeless Gypsy. Despite explicit pronouncements that Roma are placeless, these authors in their detailed discussions of Roma practices actually emphasise the importance of place. In order to account for this incongruity, it is crucial to understand how place is being conceptualised, as limited, essentialist definitions of place typically make it easier to render Roma placeless.

Nomads and mobile places: disentangling place, space and mobility

“…Their placelessness is not an essential feature of nomadism. On the contrary, critical ethnographies of nomadic groups reveal the importance of place for them (Kabachnik 2010a). The placelessness ascribed to nomads is a result of their having been constructed as mobile wanderers with no interest in place coupled with various strategies used to disrupt the places that are important for nomads and facilitate the nomadic way of life.…”

“…Instead, because place, as a concept and term, is one of the main themes that geographers draw upon, geographers have provided the most discussion and definitional attempts. Though place has entered into the formal conceptual lexicon of disciplines like cultural studies and anthropology since the 1980s, there are still many times, since other frames of analysis, in part due to disciplinary histories, are utilized, the role of place is rendered invisible and overlooked (see Kabachnik 2010a). 5.…”

Gypsy-Traveller narratives: Making sense of place

“…Tuan (1974:241) argues that 'gypsies...are placeless in both senses of the word [geographic and sociological] and they do not much care'. Like Kabachnik (2010b) we disagree with this perspective. Using a co-ethnographic approach to focus on one person's story, Mary, we have explored how a sense of place may be evident in self constructed Gypsy-Traveller identity and narrative.…”

“…In one of the few notable exceptions, Kabachnik (2010b) notes that Gypsy Travellers have in the past been largely viewed as 'placeless', and contends that the notion of place as an integral centre of meaning, emotion, memory, and identity formation is as relevant to Gypsy Travellers as to other groups within society.…”

“…It is an important source of individual and community identity and provides a profound centre of human existence to which people have deep emotional and psychological ties (Teo and Huang 1996). As Kabachnik (2010a;2010b) notes, places are important, for all people, though in a variety of dif-*' ferent ways. Similarly, Hawke (2010) states that sense of place is a notion permeat-"' ing every aspect of the humanities.…”