Abstract EN:

This thesis studies the ways the Roma of Provence, also known as « Hungarian » Roma, get organized by forming numerous and transient kumpanij. Since their arrival in France at the end of 19th century, kumpanij have been frequently composed, segmented and reconfigured in new places: at each stopover, a romani world is recreated with different people and a new distribution of the layout of the caravans. Places, which are fully-fledged elements of those « collectives », are most often spaces that are publicly or privately owned by gadje: dedicated caravan sites for travellers, illegal camp, private land; the type of space they are settling on largely determine the embedding of the Roma inside the territory of Provence. Through the analysis of the composition of the kumpanji, their members (Part I), their places (Part II) and their rhythms (Part III), this thesis highlights the remarkable resistance by which the Roma of Provence have been reinventing their ways of living together for more than one hundred and fifty years, despite continuous discriminatory policies – and, even, genocidal state policies during German Occupation of France. Two specific methodical tools are being used: an ethno-genealogical reconstruction that shows over time that kinship relationships are far from sufficient to explain the forms of the kumpanij, and an ethnographic perspective rooted in a shared life with Roma women that gives new access to the symbolic and political dimensions of the kumpanji.