Paper short abstract:

For the Calon Gypsies of Bahia the constant potentiality of violence is a basic organisational principle. Justified by individuals’ powerful emotions, violence is a form of sociality, a mechanism of coding the space and -- through breakdown it brings to any spatial arrangement -- of deterritorialisation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper argues that for the Calon Gypsies of Bahia the constant potentiality of violence is a basic organisational principle. It is the principle of coding the space - through demarcating one's home range from the space of enemies (inimigos) and unknown Gypsies (Ciganos), violence turns the homogenous space of the non-Gypsies into the heterogeneous space of the Calon. Violence is also a form of sociality: it is a denial of commonality with brasileiros (non-Gypsies) and it places a limit to sociability among the Calon; feuding, in particular, becomes a way to show ones' Gypsyness.

All violent confrontations are justified by emotions - sadness or anger - alone and not by an appeal to any "Gypsy law"; through it men act out their complete presence and preparedness. Any revenge involves only small agnatic groups, and results in a blood feud, i.e. in the killing of a perpetrator by agnates. Like emotions, revenge does not travel well across generations, although it might take time.

Nevertheless, due to the character of settlements, violence impacts all their inhabitants, causing flight or at least a reconfiguration of alliances. Violence thus influences people who are not directly related, might not observe loyalty in the same way, or even refuse to participate, but who live in the same settlement or are related to the people who do. It functions as an "apparatus of counterpower" or a "Clastrian machine" -- interpersonal violence limits the size of settlements and prevents the development of hierarchical order.