Abstract
The archival sources presented here are discussed through an ethnographic and micro-historical lens which allows us to bring to light the interaction between the restrictive public policies of the Habsburg Empire, its police force, mountain peasants and poor Sinti families in the crownland of Tyrol (1904-1910). Engaging in historical and ethnographic analysis of the arrest of Genofeva, a poor Sinti woman, permits us to bring together cultural, political and structural relationships. What emerges from this case is how natural it was for Tyrolean peasants to include Sinti as temporary members of their households, which confirms Sinti memory of being part of mountain farmers’ extended networks. Genovefa’s story pushes us to open up unexpected local categories and relationships, and to transgress existing concepts of the oppositional relationship between Romanì and non-Romanì people that are often informed by state classifications. The article asks us to distinguish between different levels of analysis, to look into the rhetoric and practices of the state, to take into consideration the agencies and local practices of the police and to look closely into relationships between peoples on the ground. It also shows how the ethnographic perspective, especially if referring to marginalized voices, can review and deconstruct power relations between those who write and build the archive and those who are described and documented.