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within normative (inter)subjective Romani identity negotiations. On the streets, this
compatibility is evidenced by the integration strategies the Roma employ. In a practice
that highlights the underlying commonalities between the mainstream non-Romani Greek
and Roma identities, the Rom will often hyper-perform commonly held nationalist
discourses to establish a baseline familiarity from where communication can proceed.
Specifically, the Roma display: recalcitrance rooted in a perceived need for independence;
a capacity for deeply impassioned appeal in the face of injustice; cleverness bordering on
trickster; and especially for men, a baseline heavy pensiveness performed typically with
the aid of a cigarette and concerned texting on a mobile phone. This strategy underscores
the compatibility of the two identities and hints at the broader discourse-based similarities
between them. On the other hand, the history of violence and prejudice, and continued
persecution suffered by Romani people in Greece make an integrated “Greek life”, or the
achievement of equal social status with the mainstream, impossible for this population, a
reality which contrasts with the subjective identity politics the Roma engage in. Herein
lays the conflict: in addition to claiming any number of Romani tribal identities the Roma
identify themselves as being Greek based on a concept of ethnogeny, yet they are unable
to experience and practice this aspect of who they are within the public sphere13 ɪ. Again,
a closer examination of the compound can elucidate this complex identity politics. The
compound is a microcosm of a near-ideal GreekZRomani dream nation: and the
management of trajectories that transgress its borders reveals the ongoing subjective and
'3l Contraiy to the perspective offered by most ethnographic works exploring the Roma, this work takes
this embattled community as part of the population totality of the city∕country in which they are situated.
This is not to suggest that I am somehow glossing over the Roma culture and history, or the unique lived
experience of being Romani; rather, I am challenging the inherent anthropological tendency to invent
groups (see for example Gal & Irvine 1995).