Dynamic Musicscapes in Northern Greece: A Roma Case Study
Dynamic Musicscapes in Northern Greece: A Roma Case Study

Summary/Abstract: In recent years, there has been a considerable debate in social sciences concerning the relationship between place and culture, the dominant view being that this relationship is ‘physical’. Groups have been identified as part of specific geographical spaces and their culture has been likewise considered as rooted in a particular territory. This theory is rather due to the phenomenon of nationalism, since part of its rhetoric is reinforced by substantiating the relationships among place, community, and culture. Lately, though, anthropologists have challenged the aforesaid essentialist approach. The concepts of culture and identity, disengaged from their correspondence with space, no longer constitute homogenous and static categories which define one group of people diachronically. This paper, based on the ethnographic example of the Roma (Gypsies) of Iraklia-Serres in Northern Greece, makes clear that, for the Roma, the term local (dopia) music is not monolithic, although it displays a high degree of relativity. In Roma professional logic, the concept of music is not constructed around final conclusions but is constituted by all kinds of practice, categorisation, and classification. What is enhanced in each case is the meaning of the music as an expression of place and identity. The Roma musicians, either as protagonists or as extras, represent their ethnic group and test the permeability of the boundaries (spatial, ethnic, symbolic), which are being continually repositioned in relation to the different reference points.

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