Everyday Drama: Impression Management of Urban Gypsies.

Abstract

Successful interaction with non-Gypsies is a key element of Gypsy adaptation to urban contexts. Close proximity to non-Gypsies, economic dependence on them, and divergent cultural values all point to the need for Gypsy manipulation of the impression non-Gypsies receive. Different performances are required for various non-Gypsy audiences, such as landlords, truant officers, and fortune-telling customers. This paper explores the negotiation of impressions among Rom Gypsies. Various performances such as passing as a non-Gypsy, playing up stereotypes, and enacting the role of fortune-teller are analyzed from a dramaturgical framework suggested by Goff man. During the past century, Kalderash and Machwaya Rom1 Gypsies have adapted well to life in urban settings in the United States. Adaptation has involved two complementary processes: (1) preserving the the Gypsy/non-Gypsy boundary by maintaining a distinctive in-group culture, including language, values, and beliefs, and (2) crossing the Gypsy/nonGypsy boundary to negotiate a viable niche within the non-Gypsy milieu. This paper deals with the process of boundary crossing as a performance strategically enacted for survival. Successful interaction with non-Gypsies is crucial for survival because Gypsies depend economically and materially on non-Gypsies. Gypsies earn money and procure goods such as food, clothing, shelter, and luxury items from non-Gypsies; in return they provide services such as fortune-telling and body and fender repair of cars for nonGypsies. Economics inexorably ties the Gypsy to the non-Gypsy, since profit-making exchanges are permissible only with non-Gypsies, according to Rom tradition.2