The name is absent

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collective struggle to reconcile the phenomena and conditions that deny an integrated
Greek life.

Within the compound, the Roma engage in what might be considered typical
Greek practices alongside Romani practices. In fact, it would be inappropriate to
distinguish between the two as - just like the Roma identity the Greek and Roma are
indistinguishable in idiosyncratic experiences of daily life and identity negotiations. For
example: Romani families pride themselves on sending sons for the mandatory military
training period, even though they know these boys will be abused there for being Roma
or rejected for service entirely; they observe national and Greek Orthodox religious
holidays with special fervor, often using the leftover paraphernalia they sell to the
mainstream public on the streets to enhance their own celebrations; and they follow
Greek media and especially soap operas passionately, especially as occasional Gypsy-Iike
characters appear. In these examples, the Roma engage typical contemporary Greek
identity markers like military service, observation of religious holidays, and consumption
of local media, albeit with added meaning specific to the Romani condition.

This conflation of Greek and Roma in daily life is also observable in the very
structures that comprise Romani compounds. A number of core Romani architectural
characteristics remain such as the center-facing orientation of houses, house sizes, and
patterns of internal and external use (Karathanasi 2000). Specifically, Romani homes are
usually between five or six hundred square-feet in size, and comprise of single rooms
divided variously by temporary cardboard walls and/or hanging cloths which, in turn, are
regularly moved to change the interior to suit the occupants’ needs, whims, and/or
aesthetic visions. Also distinctively Romani is the process of mitosis which Romani

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