ABSTRACT
The ideology of defilement, or marime as defilement is called in Romani, pervades the most important categories of belief and thought among the Roma. It extends to all areas of life in some way, underwriting a hygienic attitude toward the world, themselves, and others. Pollution ideas work on the life of society, especially in the sense of symbolizing certain dangers and expressing a general view of the social order. Lines are drawn between the Gypsy and the non-Gypsy, the clean and the unclean, health and disease, the good and the bad, which are made obvious and visible through the offices of ritual avoidance.
