“We Are All Brothers Here”

This chapter explores the radical gender divisions that characterized Rom identity and community. It explains how for Gypsy men and women alike, male-gendered activities and relations provided an image of communal affairs. The chapter establishes the nature of the ideological representation of “brotherhood,” and then looks at some of the contradictions it generated in the representation of relations established through marriage and relations within households. At its most concrete, brotherhood referred to the individual Gypsy’s experience of growing up in an extended family and therefore seemed supremely self-obvious, but at its most abstract, the term referred to the ideal nature of relationships among humans. At its most concrete, brotherhood referred to the individual Gypsy’s experience of growing up in an extended family and therefore seemed supremely self-obvious, but at its most abstract, the term referred to the ideal nature of relationships among humans.