ABSTRACT
The gypsy as nomad is a persistent theme throughout the history of the group and is a feature of all the representations that have been considered so far in this study. However, in both the racial and ethnic variants nomadism is just one of a range of other features and characteristics that identify the gypsy. Moreover, nomadism has created a number of difficulties for those presenting the racial and the ethnic picture, notably around the need to distinguish the gypsy from other nomads and also to accommodate the actuality or possibility of gypsies turning from the road to a settled way of life. The final definition and representation of the gypsy extracts this key feature of nomadism and elevates it to the position of the prime, single defining characteristic of the group: gypsies are defined as persons and families adopting nomadism as a way of life, in which travelling and living in moveable dwellings are regular and habitual, if not permanent, features of their lives. The boundaries of the group have been widened because other restrictive criteria, such as origins, ancestry, culture, are not applied. The process of widening is usually accompanied by the loss of capitalisation and the term gypsy is spelt with a lower-case ‘g’. 2 With this final definition the dilemmas of differentiating within the nomadic population are thus reduced, though, as will be seen, not entirely overcome, and the notion of the settled gypsy is relegated to a forgotten corner.
