Martin Fotta
Biographic Data
| ID | 641874 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Martin Fotta |
| GIVEN NAMES | Martin |
| FAMILY NAME | Fotta |
| SIGNATURE | FOTTA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Goethe University Frankfurt |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3037-317X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 5 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Sabrina Tosi Cambini: Other Borders: History, Mobility and Migration of Rudari Families between Romania and Italy
Article Sabrina Tosi Cambini: Other Borders: History, Mobility and Migration of Rudari Families between Romania and Italy was published on June 1, 2025 in the journal Comparative Southeast European Studies (volume 73, issue 2)
Ethnographic Methods in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Research
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This edited volume discusses the methodological and ethical challenges that researchers are currently facing whilst attempting to document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities throughout Europe.
Ethnographic Methods in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Research: Lessons from a Time of Crisis
The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality
The tense but enduring engagement between anthropology and gender and sexuality studies has had profound effects upon anthropological theory and practice. Bringing together contributions from an international team of authors, this Handbook shows that anthropological work has taken inspiration from feminist and LGBTQI movements to create a transformative body of research. It provides an accessible, state-of-the-art overview of the anthropology of …
Ciganos no Brasil: Relações Entre Continuidade, Mudança E Diferença
O presente dossiê tem como objetivo reunir estudos inéditos sobre povos ciganos realizados no Brasil nos últimos anos e apresentá-los ao público acadêmico mais amplo. Pretende-se mostrar os povos ciganos como agentes que vêm co-construindo o Brasil há séculos e a variedade de experiências vividas por esses povos no contexto nacional. A partir de diferentes abordagens empíricas (e em grande parte dos casos, privilegiando o ponto de vista cigano), …
Romani Studies in Latin America and the Caribbean: Emerging themes and state of the field in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico
Brazilian scholars of Romani studies have not generally engaged with the field's development in other Latin American countries and the Caribbean (LAC). To stimulate such an exchange and give this emerging continental scholarship the visibility it deserves, this article provides an introduction to Romani studies in the region. The first part of the article presents the results of a survey we conducted among scholars in 2021, which identified main …
Chapter 10 Exchange, Shame and Strength among Calon of Bahia: A Values-based Analysis
Témoignage
[video:fotta] Martin Fotta est anthropologue à l’Académie des sciences Tchèque et l’auteur de l’article « On ne peut plus parcourir le monde comme avant » : au-delà de la dichotomie nomadisme/sédentarité, publié dans le n° 2 en 2012, dossier « Tsiganes » coordonné par Marc Bordigoni et Mônica Raisa Schpun
Cash Transfers
Cash transfers—direct regular and non-contributory payments to eligible individuals—are one of the most discussed, celebrated, and contested social assistance innovations of the twenty-first century. They have helped alleviate poverty and provide quick relief during economic crises such as those triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are heralded for improving the position of women, increasing community resilience, making development aid interv…
Ciganos as a Traditional People: Romanies and the Politics of Recognition in Brazil
Within the Brazilian multicultural regime of recognition, Ciganos (Romanies) are recognised as belonging to ‘traditional peoples and communities’. The article discusses how this concept became applied to Ciganos raising questions of belonging, commonality and representation. It describes the emergence of novel ways of presenting one’s culture as distinct and even traditional among Calon Ciganos. It shows how demands to overcome invisibility, led …
The Figure of the Gypsy (Cigano) as a Signpost for Crises of the Social Hierarchy (Bahia, 1590s-1900s)
Gypsies ( Ciganos in Portuguese) have been present in Brazil since the earliest days of Portuguese colonization. Part of the (free) masses ( o povo , "the people"), they were known primarily as itinerant traders of trinkets, slaves, and animals, and were one category of intermediaries who made the internal economy function. Authorities viewed their lifestyle and activities with suspicion. Focusing on the state of Bahia, in the north-eastern regio…
Non-sedentarism, Violence and Politics of Assertive Egalitarianism among Calon Gypsies of Bahia, Brazil
The community life of Calon Romanies (Gypsies) in Bahia, northeast Brazil, is politically instituted through and by violence. Violence and fear of violence underlie Calon sociability and serve as a way to mark Calon as distinct from Jurons (non-Gypsies). Within communities, it undermines the tendency for personal power and efficacy to coalesce into rank, as well as the tendency for settlements to petrify into entities with fixed identities. Ultim…
Only the dead don't make the future: Calon lives between non-Gypsies and death
This article argues that the instability of social arrangements, openness in economic strategies, and presentist orientations found among the Calon Gypsies (Ciganos) in Bahia are not to be attributed to uncertainty originating in destabilizations of Calon social life through encompassment and penetration by the dominant Juron (non-Gypsy) society. It shows instead that Calon cultivate exploitable uncertainty and maintain forward thrust in their li…
From Itinerant Trade to Moneylending in the Era of Financial Inclusion: Households, Debts and Masculinity among Calon Gypsies of Northeast Brazil
From Itinerant Trade to Moneylending in the Era of Financial Inclusion: Households, Debts and Masculinity among Calon Gypsies of Northeast Brazil
Chapter 6 Moneylending Niche As Householding
Chapter 5 Lending Money to Jurons
‘Money on the Street’ as a Hoard
The resilience of the communal life of Calon Gypsies of Bahia, whose primary occupation is moneylending, lies in their treatment of money that individual men have in circulation as composing ‘inalienable personal hoards’. Calon ‘money on the street’ is viewed as a set of all the money a Calon man can hope to receive at various points from his existing loans. As a singularized totality, this whole is considered by other Calon as potentially knowab…
Violence and Affective States in Contemporary Latin America
This special issue brings together scholars interested in the analysis of the social, cultural and affective dimensions of violence. The contributions explore the connections between situated experiences of violence and shifting affective states, relations, sensations and contingencies in contemporary Latin America. The articles consider how violence might constitute a nexus for the production of subjectivities and forms of identification, relati…
They say he is a man now: A Tale of Fathers and Sons
Similarly to other minimalist societies lacking formalised social structures and offices, emotions play a central role in sustaining, expressing and evaluating relationships among the Calon Gypsies of Bahia. An analysis of emotions therefore has to take into account Calon views of personal transformation and how people's interactions, as well as their views of themselves and situations, are patterned and described through emotions. The article is…
Gypsy Economy
Economic arrangements of Romanies are complexly related to their social position. The authors of this volume explore these complexities, including how economic exchanges forge key social relationships of gender and ethnicity, how economic opportunities are constructed and seized, and how economic success and failure are transformed into attributes of social persons. They explore how, despite — or perhaps because of — their unstable and ambiguous …
Gypsy Economy: Romani Livelihoods and Notions of Worth in the 21st Century
Brazilian Gypsiology A view from anthropology
Ciganologia Brasileira (Brazilian Gypsiology) started early, at the end of the nineteenth century. The first anthropological studies of Gypsies ( Ciganos ) appeared in the early 1980s – almost in parallel with similar studies elsewhere in the world. We argue that Romani studies could benefit both from assimilating the history of Ciganologia Brasileira and from studying Ciganos (Calon, Roma, Sinti and possibly others) in Brazil. Besides providing …
On ne peut plus parcourir le monde comme avant: Au-Delà De La Dichotomie Nomadisme/Sédentarité
Les chercheurs caractérisent fréquemment la relation à l'espace des tsiganes brésiliens selon l'opposition sédentarité/nomadisme. Or une approche historique et ethnographique de leurs modes de vie montre que l'on objective ainsi des catégories des sciences sociales mais qu'on ne parvient pas à rendre compte de leurs sociabilités ni des significations qu'ils donnent à leur spatialité. Le monde des Tsiganes calon de Bahia est structuré par des prin…
They say he is a man now: A Tale of Fathers and Sons
Similarly to other minimalist societies lacking formalised social structures and offices, emotions play a central role in sustaining, expressing and evaluating relationships among the Calon Gypsies of Bahia. An analysis of emotions therefore has to take into account Calon views of personal transformation and how people's interactions, as well as their views of themselves and situations, are patterned and described through emotions. The article is…
Brazilian Gypsiology A view from anthropology
Ciganologia Brasileira (Brazilian Gypsiology) started early, at the end of the nineteenth century. The first anthropological studies of Gypsies ( Ciganos ) appeared in the early 1980s – almost in parallel with similar studies elsewhere in the world. We argue that Romani studies could benefit both from assimilating the history of Ciganologia Brasileira and from studying Ciganos (Calon, Roma, Sinti and possibly others) in Brazil. Besides providing …
Romani Studies in Latin America and the Caribbean: Emerging themes and state of the field in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico
Brazilian scholars of Romani studies have not generally engaged with the field's development in other Latin American countries and the Caribbean (LAC). To stimulate such an exchange and give this emerging continental scholarship the visibility it deserves, this article provides an introduction to Romani studies in the region. The first part of the article presents the results of a survey we conducted among scholars in 2021, which identified main …
Ciganos as a Traditional People: Romanies and the Politics of Recognition in Brazil
Within the Brazilian multicultural regime of recognition, Ciganos (Romanies) are recognised as belonging to ‘traditional peoples and communities’. The article discusses how this concept became applied to Ciganos raising questions of belonging, commonality and representation. It describes the emergence of novel ways of presenting one’s culture as distinct and even traditional among Calon Ciganos. It shows how demands to overcome invisibility, led …
Violence and Affective States in Contemporary Latin America
This special issue brings together scholars interested in the analysis of the social, cultural and affective dimensions of violence. The contributions explore the connections between situated experiences of violence and shifting affective states, relations, sensations and contingencies in contemporary Latin America. The articles consider how violence might constitute a nexus for the production of subjectivities and forms of identification, relati…
Non-sedentarism, Violence and Politics of Assertive Egalitarianism among Calon Gypsies of Bahia, Brazil
The community life of Calon Romanies (Gypsies) in Bahia, northeast Brazil, is politically instituted through and by violence. Violence and fear of violence underlie Calon sociability and serve as a way to mark Calon as distinct from Jurons (non-Gypsies). Within communities, it undermines the tendency for personal power and efficacy to coalesce into rank, as well as the tendency for settlements to petrify into entities with fixed identities. Ultim…
Only the dead don't make the future: Calon lives between non-Gypsies and death
This article argues that the instability of social arrangements, openness in economic strategies, and presentist orientations found among the Calon Gypsies (Ciganos) in Bahia are not to be attributed to uncertainty originating in destabilizations of Calon social life through encompassment and penetration by the dominant Juron (non-Gypsy) society. It shows instead that Calon cultivate exploitable uncertainty and maintain forward thrust in their li…
On ne peut plus parcourir le monde comme avant: Au-Delà De La Dichotomie Nomadisme/Sédentarité
Les chercheurs caractérisent fréquemment la relation à l'espace des tsiganes brésiliens selon l'opposition sédentarité/nomadisme. Or une approche historique et ethnographique de leurs modes de vie montre que l'on objective ainsi des catégories des sciences sociales mais qu'on ne parvient pas à rendre compte de leurs sociabilités ni des significations qu'ils donnent à leur spatialité. Le monde des Tsiganes calon de Bahia est structuré par des prin…
The Figure of the Gypsy (Cigano) as a Signpost for Crises of the Social Hierarchy (Bahia, 1590s-1900s)
Gypsies ( Ciganos in Portuguese) have been present in Brazil since the earliest days of Portuguese colonization. Part of the (free) masses ( o povo , "the people"), they were known primarily as itinerant traders of trinkets, slaves, and animals, and were one category of intermediaries who made the internal economy function. Authorities viewed their lifestyle and activities with suspicion. Focusing on the state of Bahia, in the north-eastern regio…
On ne peut plus parcourir le monde comme avant: Au-Delà De La Dichotomie Nomadisme/Sédentarité
Les chercheurs caractérisent fréquemment la relation à l'espace des tsiganes brésiliens selon l'opposition sédentarité/nomadisme. Or une approche historique et ethnographique de leurs modes de vie montre que l'on objective ainsi des catégories des sciences sociales mais qu'on ne parvient pas à rendre compte de leurs sociabilités ni des significations qu'ils donnent à leur spatialité. Le monde des Tsiganes calon de Bahia est structuré par des prin…
Brazilian Gypsiology A view from anthropology
Ciganologia Brasileira (Brazilian Gypsiology) started early, at the end of the nineteenth century. The first anthropological studies of Gypsies ( Ciganos ) appeared in the early 1980s – almost in parallel with similar studies elsewhere in the world. We argue that Romani studies could benefit both from assimilating the history of Ciganologia Brasileira and from studying Ciganos (Calon, Roma, Sinti and possibly others) in Brazil. Besides providing …
Gypsy Economy
Economic arrangements of Romanies are complexly related to their social position. The authors of this volume explore these complexities, including how economic exchanges forge key social relationships of gender and ethnicity, how economic opportunities are constructed and seized, and how economic success and failure are transformed into attributes of social persons. They explore how, despite — or perhaps because of — their unstable and ambiguous …
Gypsy Economy: Romani Livelihoods and Notions of Worth in the 21st Century
Violence and Affective States in Contemporary Latin America
This special issue brings together scholars interested in the analysis of the social, cultural and affective dimensions of violence. The contributions explore the connections between situated experiences of violence and shifting affective states, relations, sensations and contingencies in contemporary Latin America. The articles consider how violence might constitute a nexus for the production of subjectivities and forms of identification, relati…
They say he is a man now: A Tale of Fathers and Sons
Similarly to other minimalist societies lacking formalised social structures and offices, emotions play a central role in sustaining, expressing and evaluating relationships among the Calon Gypsies of Bahia. An analysis of emotions therefore has to take into account Calon views of personal transformation and how people's interactions, as well as their views of themselves and situations, are patterned and described through emotions. The article is…
‘Money on the Street’ as a Hoard
The resilience of the communal life of Calon Gypsies of Bahia, whose primary occupation is moneylending, lies in their treatment of money that individual men have in circulation as composing ‘inalienable personal hoards’. Calon ‘money on the street’ is viewed as a set of all the money a Calon man can hope to receive at various points from his existing loans. As a singularized totality, this whole is considered by other Calon as potentially knowab…
From Itinerant Trade to Moneylending in the Era of Financial Inclusion: Households, Debts and Masculinity among Calon Gypsies of Northeast Brazil
From Itinerant Trade to Moneylending in the Era of Financial Inclusion: Households, Debts and Masculinity among Calon Gypsies of Northeast Brazil
Chapter 6 Moneylending Niche As Householding
Chapter 5 Lending Money to Jurons
The Figure of the Gypsy (Cigano) as a Signpost for Crises of the Social Hierarchy (Bahia, 1590s-1900s)
Gypsies ( Ciganos in Portuguese) have been present in Brazil since the earliest days of Portuguese colonization. Part of the (free) masses ( o povo , "the people"), they were known primarily as itinerant traders of trinkets, slaves, and animals, and were one category of intermediaries who made the internal economy function. Authorities viewed their lifestyle and activities with suspicion. Focusing on the state of Bahia, in the north-eastern regio…
Non-sedentarism, Violence and Politics of Assertive Egalitarianism among Calon Gypsies of Bahia, Brazil
The community life of Calon Romanies (Gypsies) in Bahia, northeast Brazil, is politically instituted through and by violence. Violence and fear of violence underlie Calon sociability and serve as a way to mark Calon as distinct from Jurons (non-Gypsies). Within communities, it undermines the tendency for personal power and efficacy to coalesce into rank, as well as the tendency for settlements to petrify into entities with fixed identities. Ultim…
Only the dead don't make the future: Calon lives between non-Gypsies and death
This article argues that the instability of social arrangements, openness in economic strategies, and presentist orientations found among the Calon Gypsies (Ciganos) in Bahia are not to be attributed to uncertainty originating in destabilizations of Calon social life through encompassment and penetration by the dominant Juron (non-Gypsy) society. It shows instead that Calon cultivate exploitable uncertainty and maintain forward thrust in their li…
Ciganos as a Traditional People: Romanies and the Politics of Recognition in Brazil
Within the Brazilian multicultural regime of recognition, Ciganos (Romanies) are recognised as belonging to ‘traditional peoples and communities’. The article discusses how this concept became applied to Ciganos raising questions of belonging, commonality and representation. It describes the emergence of novel ways of presenting one’s culture as distinct and even traditional among Calon Ciganos. It shows how demands to overcome invisibility, led …
Chapter 10 Exchange, Shame and Strength among Calon of Bahia: A Values-based Analysis
Témoignage
[video:fotta] Martin Fotta est anthropologue à l’Académie des sciences Tchèque et l’auteur de l’article « On ne peut plus parcourir le monde comme avant » : au-delà de la dichotomie nomadisme/sédentarité, publié dans le n° 2 en 2012, dossier « Tsiganes » coordonné par Marc Bordigoni et Mônica Raisa Schpun
Cash Transfers
Cash transfers—direct regular and non-contributory payments to eligible individuals—are one of the most discussed, celebrated, and contested social assistance innovations of the twenty-first century. They have helped alleviate poverty and provide quick relief during economic crises such as those triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are heralded for improving the position of women, increasing community resilience, making development aid interv…
The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality
The tense but enduring engagement between anthropology and gender and sexuality studies has had profound effects upon anthropological theory and practice. Bringing together contributions from an international team of authors, this Handbook shows that anthropological work has taken inspiration from feminist and LGBTQI movements to create a transformative body of research. It provides an accessible, state-of-the-art overview of the anthropology of …
Ciganos no Brasil: Relações Entre Continuidade, Mudança E Diferença
O presente dossiê tem como objetivo reunir estudos inéditos sobre povos ciganos realizados no Brasil nos últimos anos e apresentá-los ao público acadêmico mais amplo. Pretende-se mostrar os povos ciganos como agentes que vêm co-construindo o Brasil há séculos e a variedade de experiências vividas por esses povos no contexto nacional. A partir de diferentes abordagens empíricas (e em grande parte dos casos, privilegiando o ponto de vista cigano), …
Romani Studies in Latin America and the Caribbean: Emerging themes and state of the field in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico
Brazilian scholars of Romani studies have not generally engaged with the field's development in other Latin American countries and the Caribbean (LAC). To stimulate such an exchange and give this emerging continental scholarship the visibility it deserves, this article provides an introduction to Romani studies in the region. The first part of the article presents the results of a survey we conducted among scholars in 2021, which identified main …
Ethnographic Methods in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Research
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This edited volume discusses the methodological and ethical challenges that researchers are currently facing whilst attempting to document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities throughout Europe.
Ethnographic Methods in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Research: Lessons from a Time of Crisis
Sabrina Tosi Cambini: Other Borders: History, Mobility and Migration of Rudari Families between Romania and Italy
Article Sabrina Tosi Cambini: Other Borders: History, Mobility and Migration of Rudari Families between Romania and Italy was published on June 1, 2025 in the journal Comparative Southeast European Studies (volume 73, issue 2)
Romani and Gypsy Studies (16 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Political science (13 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Ethnology (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Geography (5 works)