The Work of Begging among Romanian Cortorari Roma. Notes of an apprentice - Cătălina Tesăr

In the last two decades, since Romania’s EU accession, Cortorari Roma from the South of Transylvania have been performing a new procurement activity, begging in the streets of Western Europe. During my PhD fieldwork I myself became an apprentice to a family bagging in Italy. This piece shows that contrary to wide spread conceptions of beggary as a non-lucrative activity, Cortorari experience it as a kind of work located in the flesh and the body. When they go begging, Cortorari renounce their colorful attire for the worn-out beggar’s garb which symbolically veils their ethnic identity. This article contends that begging was not a cultural given or an inherent trait of Roma culture.______________This piece draws on earlier publications of mine, one in Romanian, 2011 ““Țigan bun tradițional” in Romania, cerșetor de-etnicizat în stărinătate”, in Spectrum. Cercetări sociale despre romi (eds. Stefánia Toma, László Fósztó), and one in English, 2015. “Begging: Between Charity and Profession. Reflections on Romanian Roma’s Begging Activities in Italy.” In The public value of anthropology: Engaging critical social issues through ethnography (eds. Elisabeth Tauber, Dorothy Zinn)A text by Cătălina Tesăr illustrated by Andreea Chiricahttps://theanthro.art/the-work-of-begging-among-romanian-cortorari-roma-notes-of-an-apprentice-catalina-tesar/