Ciganos, «tendeiros» e «senhores»: fronteiras identitárias

Abstract

This article talks about some main questions about «being gipsy» in inter and intra ethnic relation contexts. We’ll argue that on the one hand it is an identity that seems to lay on a dichotomization (Barth, 1969) between an “us” (“us, the gypsies”) and the “others” (the non gypsies or in the studied case, the «tendeiros»2 and the «gentlemen») and not as much as on what sometimes it’s described as «gipsy culture» (conceived as a group of cultural traits inherent to the very own gipsy ethnic belonging and acquired when an individual is born). On the other hand we’ll show that the underlying identity of the word «gipsy» doesn’t guarantee by itself the creation of a non fragmentary, supportive and unique “us”. The expression «We have five fingers in each hand and they are all different» (used by the majority of our interviewees) shows the perception about the “others” among the very own gipsy ethnic group. This is exactly why it urges to do the de-homogenization of the «gipsy» ethnic group (Bastos e Bastos, 2005).