We Don’t Stick Hands in Your Pocket but Take What Is Offered to Us: Fortune-Telling Practices among the Kalderash Roma of Russia

Abstract

The article examines the specificity of Roma fortune-telling practices as one of the main female activities among various ethnic groups, taking the case of the Kalderash Roma which helps to understand better the collective character and the street character of these practices. The most widespread form of them is a common palm-reading. It is a set of stable verbal formulas that may be employed differently, depending on this or that client. These fortune-telling practices were thought of as illegal, which is why it was important for the Kalderash Roma to rationalize them as permitted by God. This was achieved by appealing to Christian legends that conveyed the sense of Roma’s distinctiveness among other ethnic groups. Fortune-telling as an occupation developed a system of particular habits, ideas and narratives. The article analyzes the condition of this occupation today, traces the changes it has undergone, and discusses the present-day Roma lifestyle in general, including the ways in which modernization has influenced it. I argue that the “past” in Roma’s communities is still a life ideal and plays a significant part in the maintenance of their cultural identity.