Ciganos Calon da cidade de Sousa - PB: identidade e resistência.

Abstract

The present work aims to study the nomadic life of sedentary Calon gypsies in Sousa-PB, to understand why they settled in their territory and not in other places that were part of their trajectory. The ethnic group present in the Jardim Sorrilândia III neighborhood is considered the largest sedentary group in Brazil, with approximately 2500 people. These gypsies are distributed in a locality called gypsy community or Rancho dos gypsies. We found that the Calon had to go through a process of relationships and articulations that began in the 1940s with the local authorities, as well as the occurrence of other issues such as anti-gypsyism, social aggravations, aging of the group, technological advances in the hinterland, scarcity in specific profitable activities, interaction between gypsies and non-gypsies, in addition to other factors, for sedentary lifestyle to actually occur from 1982 onwards. Existing bibliography on the Calon de Sousa ethnic group, as it presents recent historical and anthropological studies, and Oral History is indispensable, since it contributed through the narratives of the Calon gypsies who experienced or heard about the nomadic life of their community, and shows the search of their identity and resistance in a scenario of strategies.