There is a Love Story in Everything. A Subjective Chronicle of Sentiments and Fear of God in a Romanian Tsiganie

Abstract

This text reflects back on my research in a Roma/Gypsy settlement, or țigănie, as my interlocutors called it, in Dițești, a village eighty kilometers north of Bucharest. The main focus lies on field notes and stories that emerged out of my doctoral research. At the center of the analysis, I place my love relationship and marriage to Maria, whom I met during my field research in the țigănie, as I try to account for how love and couple formation are experienced by the youth and how they are apprehended by their parents Deep within the love stories, the affective geography of the village is defined, as well as a moral order where “fear of God” (frica de Dumnezeu) weighs as much on the sexual desires of young couples as it does on the parents’ choices and interventions in their children’s love life.