"Romania has a larger Gypsy population than most other countries but little is known about the relationship between this group and the non-Gypsy Romanians around them. This book focuses on a group of Roma (Rom Gypsies) living in a village in Transylvania and explores their social life and cosmology. As the Roma depend on, and define themselves in relation to, the surrounding non-Gypsy populations, understanding their day-to-day interactions with these neighbours, primarily peasants to whom they relate through extended barter, is essential. The author concludes that, although economically and politically marginal, the Roma are central to Romanian collective identity because they offer both desirable and repulsive counter-images, incorporating the uncivilized, immoral and attractive 'other'. While creating tensions, this interdependence also allows for some degree of cultural and political autonomy for the Roma within Romanian society."--BOOK JACKET.