Appendix 1
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compound are content to leave doors open day and night, to have holes in walls, park cars
partially indoors and sleep and cook in their yards and in the yards of neighbors (if the
word ‘yard,’ with all its connotations, can be applied to describe the area in front of
Romani houses); when a non-Romani individual appears, however, the camp becomes
spontaneously populated with forbidden zones. The interior of houses is one such zone,
but also the spaces behind houses and in the Alpha compound the section of land where
houses back onto a fence furthest from the main access are off limits to those not escorted
by a local resident. Add to this that forbidden zones often shift and change depending on
how nearby families feel or if people move or leave. Learning and respecting internal
borders has been extremely important, not to mention difficult. With time, experience,
and by learning how to read body language and verbal cues, the borders become more
apparent and more easily avoidable.
Currently, I, and other MERIA personnel, experience mostly politeness and
tolerance from the Roma, and we in turn have become more accustomed to the particulars
of internal Romani communication and the complexity of Romani space, and have
developed an effective means of communicating sensitive questions and requests.
Sometimes, of course, communications break down or unexpected situations arise. This
occurs most frequently when Roma from other compounds come to stay, and when we
come to conduct research at sensitive times like when internal feuding has escalated or
when celebrations have lead to considerable drinking. In the first two cases we rely on
our established relationships and reputation in the compound to aid us in defusing
potentially explosive situations. In the latter, rather infrequent case, MERIA personnel
are instructed to skip the day’s work and I go in alone to collect research data only. In