ABSTRACT
The model of identity that the Gitanos of Jarana hold denies that a shared memory may play a role in the constitution of Gypsyness. The Gitanos, they say, are a group of people who 'don't know'. They ignore their 'descent', as Colombo explained: what their origins are or where they came from. They cannot read or write, they are a people 'without schooling'. It is this moral knowledge - of the norms and of how to follow the norms - that makes the Gitanos who they are: distinct from the Payos and also superior to them, a 'better kind of people'. The Gitano view of their distinctiveness is rooted in an ideal of personal righteousness. In fact, Gitano sociability is governed by strong centrifugal forces, and the characteristics of the Gitanos' image of themselves as a group correspond to the dispersed nature of their everyday life.
