The other side of the moon. A journey with the Caramizari gypsies

Abstract

After a brief historical overview on models of cohabitation between gypsies and European populations, the Author talks to us about her trip and stay in Tintareni (Craiova), in Romania. Through participant observation and by exercising an interpretative-reflective approach, she has examined the lifestyle of the Caramizari gypsies who are a sub-ethnic gypsy group that owes its name to the profession which they have traditionally practised, the production and sale of bricks. By studying their travels, the complex economic system elaborated as a result of having lost their original profession (and based on the recycling of objects found in the rubbish bins of big cities which are transported to Romania and sold in the markets), gypsy marriages and the role of the woman, the Author is able to confute a number of stereotypes related to the gypsies, in particular the one related to nomadism, and offers a more complex vision of a people that has reacted creatively to the globalized production of goods, but must still achieve much in the way of emancipation.