Marginal Majority and Dishevelled Otherness: Debating Gypsyness on the Greek-Albanian Border

Multiculturalism and the catachresis of otherness: Settling Gypsies, unsettling Gypsy belongings

“…Faced with the emotional calls and possibilities for identification that arise from Gypsies' particular affinities, commonalities and predicaments, Gypsy 'difference' sets about the demand for a closer examination of the very space through which Gypsies become simultaneously both the 'same' and 'different'. And as I have argued elsewhere (Theodosiou, 2004(Theodosiou, , 2008, the key for understanding such a difference in the Parakalamos case can be found in the overlapping notions of locatedness and belonging. Such an emphasis allows us to briefly expose two crucial parts of the Gypsy world: their identification and emotional attachment with place and music that are strongly related with the historical construction of Parakalamos as a 'doubly occupied place' -an element explored above.…”

“…The oscillation between two contradictory, but crucial, threads of Gypsies' 'be-longing' -home and musicianship, otherness and sameness (e.g. Theodosiou, 2004Theodosiou, , 2007Theodosiou, , 2008) -is best explicated through their musical performances; those are citational and repetitive practices, culturally and socially specific, deeply embodied, simultaneously individual and collective, conveying connections and interrelations between people, places and music. It is through them and in them, to borrow Sarah Ahmed's (2004) insight, that 'free floating emotions' -the intensity and intimacy of shared affect -come to be attached to particular relations/'objects'.…”

“…As a result of its participation in both the complex Ottoman history of the area and the nationalizing operations of the Greek state that followed (the area was incorporated into the Greek nation-state in 1913), the village of Parakalamos has been historically constructed as a 'doubly occupied space' (Theodosiou, 2004(Theodosiou, , 2008. Its symbolic association with two distinct qualities, Gypsyness and peasanthood, positions the village in an ambiguous cum marginal way towards the rest of the area.…”

“…Thus Parakalamos Gypsyness summons up two worlds, home and musicianship, otherness and sameness (e.g. Theodosiou, 2004Theodosiou, , 2007Theodosiou, , 2008).…”