Austrian "Gypsies" in the Italian archives

Bibliographic Data

ID3021024
AuthorsPaola Trevisan (0000-0003-3957-6982, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume2020
Issue87
Pages61-74
Publication date2020-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFocaal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0920-1297 • E-ISSN: 1558-5263
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/fcl.2020.012806
OpenAlexW3011152573
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited15

The archival documents I work with concern Sinti ("Gypsy") families belonging to the Austrian Empire, stopped by the Italian authorities between 1908 and 1912. By following Anna Laura Stoler's proposition, I read the police records through an ethnographic lens, connecting the anti-Gypsy policy of both states with the strategies adopted by the Sinti families to inhabit and/or cross borders. Thus, the border becomes the space where the sovereignty of the state came into play and where the categories of "citizen" and "foreigner" become explicit through the daily controls on those who attempt to cross. Intertwining research in the archives with anthropological literature and fieldwork, this article presents a historical ethnography of those Sinti families who experienced the borders as "Gypsies," a category that calls for critical analysis because it goes beyond the foreigner/citizen dichotomy

Empire · Epistemology · Ethnography · Political science · Politics · Proposition · Sociology · Sovereignty · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Romani and Gypsy Studies

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