ABSTRACT
Although Hungarian peasants and Gypsies each imagined the other as the antithesis of itself, both had to deal with a similar predicament: They lived in a society in which status as a full human being was based on the achievement of autonomy, independence, and self-mastery, but both lacked the means to do so. Dealing with horses enabled the Rom to act as “masters of themselves,” as agents of their destiny in their relations with each other and with the gazos. Most traders treat the objects in which they deal as commodities, as the material embodiment of monetary wealth. Horse dealing provided one way in which the Gypsies appeared to live without the weight of labor, but for the Rom, their activities in this sphere had to be distinguished from all forms of production. Earlier in the day the Rom dealers ordered the gazos around—working in a team, they tried to disorient the gazos and coerce them into deals.
