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offer good service for low wages, and portray a national∕ethnic neutrality that doesn’t
distract from the produce and that customers feel comfortable with and empowered by.
However, some Romani sellers I interviewed simply could not abandon calling altogether,
so, as their hired workers managed the stall they engaged in more neutral calling
highlighting the quality of their product, broadcasting prices, and inviting shoppers to
sample goods. These sellers explained that their commitment to calling was more than a
simple sales strategy or observation of market tradition, but rather emanated from their
sense of Greek-ness, or from what might be called a sense of structural nostalgia
(Herzfeld 2005:147). They argued that true Greeks would not abandon this practice, and
that the Romani persistence in calling was indicative of a positive future. While the
mainstream comes to look away from nationalist elements in defining itself, the Roma are
seeing their adherence to a core national∕folk identity as evidence of a civic worth and
legitimacy. In the compound, stories circulate about easily swindled shoppers willing to
spend more money on “pretty fruit”, an indication of a diminishing popular cleverness
tantamount to a diminishing “Greek-ness” (the remaining “ugly fruit” making its way to
compound shops takes on a new nationalist significance).
Individuals also identify the exposure of the mainstream population to forces
outside of the national borders as a negative overall influence on national identity. This
is contrasted with a steadfast Roma IocalZnational focus achieved, partially, by the
insulating qualities of the compound itself and by the conditions of poverty and social
exclusion and immobility that keep the Roma away from influences that might turn them
from their perceived heritage. This is not to suggest that the Roma desire the state of
ongoing violence and discrimination they endure, but rather that they feel it has come