ABSTRACT
The rationality debate has focused on the alleged non-rationality of the non-Western other or former primitive.1 Instead, I wish to draw attention to the non-rational beliefs among citizens of the dominant Western context. In this case the mysterious other, the non-literate Gypsy, caters to the needs, desires and troubles of the literate, supposedly rational majority. What is even more unexpected is the fact that whereas the literate, often relatively educated client has faith in the Gypsies’ powers to predict the future, the Gypsy specialist does not. It is a puzzle as to why clients entertain such a belief and a puzzle as to how the Gypsies continue successfully to practise this ‘art’ which they don’t believe in. The Gypsies or Travellers are the ones who are faced with the kind of questions which Evans-Pritchard (1937), confronted with Azande practices, had to answer and make intelligible to an incredulous Western readership. For fortune-telling to work among nonGypsy clients, the latter must believe that Gypsies believe in their own supernatural powers. This chapter aims to unravel these puzzles not only for Western readers but also for non-Westerners who have been led to think that exotica and magical beliefs have been eradicated from Western suburbia and the metropolis.
