FLEXIBLE EPISTEMOLOGIES: GYPSY/ROMA THINKING AND ANTHROPOLOGY THEORY

This article reflects on the conceptual debt that anthropology has developed towards the peoples it studies, by exploring the case-study of Gypsy/Roma anthropology. We argue that ethnographically-grounded research has enabled anthropologists to access and incorporate Gypsy/Roma visions and practices of the world. The flexible Gypsy epistemologies, which Gypsies/Roma use in the social and cultural construction of particular forms of identity and mobility, have thus translated into a specific practice of theory, which has provided more adequate tools for grasping the complexity of reality and contributed to a decolonialisation of anthropological thought.