Creating context : Ethnography and local concept „ both a man and a woman “ in the Roma community in Skopje

The research in this text focuses on creating a research context, which reflects the notion of sexuality of individuals born as male and feeling as „women“ or „as both male and female“ in the Roma community in Skopje. The ethnographic „field“ is created nontraditionally and reflects the characteristics of the local sex/gender „both male and female“ concept, which leads to the systemic characteristics in the local economies where sexuality acquires an economic form.

Many world anthropologists have written that the main difference between anthropology and other human sciences (alt: humanities) comprises ethnographic research.Anthropologists perform research by constantly referring to ethnographic fieldwork when "the immediate goal of all research is, and must remain, the production of knowledge" (Hammersley and Atkinson 2007, 15).Field work creates "true anthropologists", and true anthropology knowledge is created only if it is "based" on field work (Gupta and Ferguson 1997, 1).Such focused, targeted, organized research, called "field work" defines anthropology in two meaningful ways: as a discipline which constructs space as a space of possibilities and as a discipline that draws the boundary lines of delineated space (Gupta and Ferguson 1997, 2).Within this field of possibilities, ethnographers recognize that the "'field' which ethnographers enter exists as an independently bounded set of relationships and activities which is autonomous of the fieldwork through which it is discovered" (Vered 2000, 6).By that rationale, "the field" does not exist until the ethnographer discovers it.

Creating the field
The most important factor the author uses to determine whether some part of the research will be adopted as part of his/her ethnography "depends on experience" (Gupta and Ferguson 1997, 1;Vered 2000, 1), when anthropologists involves all of his/her personal resources: intellectual, physical, emotional, political and intuitive (Okely 1992;Vered 2000).
One of the main principles, which modern anthropological research considers a traditional approach, suggests that going to the "field" means traveling "away, preferably to a distant locale where the ethnographer will immerse him/ herself in personal face-to-face relationships with a variety of natives over an extended period of time" (Vered 2000, 2).Such principles have contributed for certain places to be considered more or less "for the role of 'the field'" (Gupta and Ferguson 1997, 2).Anthropological research demonstrates these tendencies even today.In their research, some schools of anthropology still follow the already established models when researchers from relatively rich countries look for their "field" in poorer countries, or when research conducted "domestically" refers to the local equivalents of "exotic" (Хан 2009, 47).Some schools of anthropology consider this a prerequisite for any serious anthropologic research, with which I absolutely disagree.However, most of the researchers, although still content to do anthropologic field work through thorough assimilation of the day-to-day practices and face-to-face relations with a specific group of individuals (Hastrup and Hervik 1994;Okely 1992;Vered 2000), have critical views of the general anthropologic orthodoxy, i.e. of discovering "the exotic" always in "others" and travelling "faraway".
Considering the ubiquitous influence between "researcher" and "field" I will only agree with and try to respect the conclusion of the ethnographers that "rather than engaging in futile attempts to eliminate the effects of the researcher completely, we should set about understanding them" (Hammersley and Atkinson 2007, 16).The influence also goes the other way.Thus, researchers continuously build their research identity in the mutual relationship with the field and object of the research.While building of the ethnography we need to stick to Scholte's proposal about the "practice of 'reflexivity'" (Scholte 1972, 435, according to Callaway 1992, 32), "the concept of reflexivity" (Hammersley and Atkinson 2009, 15) which also includes the "autobiographical reflexivity" (Okely and Callaway 1992;Vered 2000, 4), regardless of whether we work in traditional or, as the ethnographic "field" was created in this research, "'nontraditional' ways" (Caputo 2000, 20).
Locally, the field is created in the Roma community in Skopje, "domestically", i.e. in the neighborhood of the researcher, and, through the narratives of the local interlocutors, "it extends" to the "scenes" of Italy and Switzerland,

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R 153 which reflect the trans-local character of the sex/gender identity arising from the local concept "both male and female" of the Roma community in Skopje.
Since the idea was to work within the Roma community, at the beginning, I was convinced that I would find my collaborators only in Shuto Orizari.Considering my past experiences with researching the male sexuality, I was sure that it would not be easy to find people to talk to about this topic.All of the researchers that had at least some experience in implementing specific projects related to the sexual health of the Roma community indicated this.They suggested that I should seek the assistance of organizations that implement projects targeting man having sex with man (MSM).Therefore I firstly activated the old "networks of cooperation", but I also connected with the new ones in order to access the interlocutors.I asked my "old" collaborators from the civil organization EGAL, the "new" ones from the Transgender Support Group at the Helsinki Committee, as well as through my personal "contacts", to help me "network" with their collaborators from the Roma community.Since this is a peculiar topic dealing with a category of individuals considered "inaccessible" for the general public, the only way to get access required recommendations from individuals from organizations working on similar topics, i.e. individuals they trust.Such research methods have also proven beneficial for other colleagues working on other research in the Roma community in Skopje.
With a recommendation from the coordinator of the Transgender Support Group, we agreed to make phone call to one of the potential interlocutors considered appropriate to talk to about this topic.I needed to call this person and agree an initial meeting.The phone call posed a great dilemma for me since the person who agreed the telephone calls provided me with two names for each of the interlocutors, a "male" and a "female" name, and I did not know which name I should use during the initial call.In my investigating judgment, in order to behave appropriately with my interlocutors, I thought it most appropriate to use the "female" names since they felt that way, and to address them using the feminine gender and show them I have no problem with their orientation and that I support them.Later this proved inappropriate because the use of female names in public communication, including phone calls, can create problems for the interlocutor.My field notes also reflect my attitude toward them, and I have "no problem" to categorize my interlocutors within the female gender, without considering the possible consequences from publicly declaring them as "female".During the open conversations with our interlocutors, regarding our initial phone conversation and the reason for it, they explained that often some people from the Roma community would find out their telephone numbers and call them to mock and offend them using their "female name".Inadvertently I did exactly that.Very often, when I called one of the interlocutors on the phone, one of his children answered the phone first.Concerned that this might lead to a I C R 154 greater misunderstanding and wanting my interlocutors to trust me, I decided at my initial meetings with my future interlocutors to invite some of the collaborators from the civil society organizations.The civil society organizations provided great assistance, especially their coordinators which offered the premises of one of the Centers to me for my research work, at times there were less people.
One thing that the representatives from the organizations greatly emphasized was that it is very peculiar to work with the Roma population in Skopje, that, very often, they are unable to implement their program because they are required to provide some kind of compensation in the form of food or money.I did not pay much attention to this.I did not realize the economic sense behind this message to which I needed to adhere, that is that, during this research, just as in the case of the their other projects, the people involved in my research would require this of me, assuming that I have a certain research budget.However, I failed to see this, until the Center employee explicitly stated it after the first conversation with the two future interlocutors.
"After both interlocutors left S. asked me whether I have allocated some funds for the two persons.I expressed my surprise, because I did not expect something like that.S. explained that they are sex workers ...and that probably they expect some reward for the time they spent... S. warned me that when I work with people from the Roma community, especially MSM (who are considered "gay") and those that work as sex workers, I have to count on rewarding them.Nevertheless, he told me that he undertook the role of the middleman (because they felt that they could freely discuss it with him) because they would never tell me to give them a reward because they would feel ashamed, but they want it never the less and that that is why they came here in the first place.Still surprised, I honestly told S. that had I known about this, then I might have not find myself in this situation and that the holding the conversation might have become an issue because I had not been prepared and they may not want to work with me....I proposed an amount of 500 MKD per person per conversation.S. told me that he had a similar amount in mind and that we would find a way to convey this to them, i.e. that I had waited to after the end of the conversation (which we did not finish that day) to give them the money.S. thought that it would have been useful if I had mentioned this at the meeting with them.Then I explained that our institution, and myself as a part of it, does not operate the way that the organizations do, i.e. that we do not pay for interviews/conversations with people and hence my unpreparedness..." (Field notes 2013).
This was the first and the essential requirement that I had to fulfill in order "to get" people to talk with during my field work together with my two assistants N. and S.
"With S. we started the conversation after N. came.I told them that they can tell what they want to talk openly about.S. began by saying that I knew that they are sex workers (SW) that work with clients all the time and that they should allocate some of their time to come here, ... to postpone meetings with clients which costs them money.I told them that I knew that and that I had thought about it, but they should know that this is not a project, but my own research for which there is no budget, and that if I were Етноантрополошки проблеми, н. с. год. 10 св. 1 ( 2015) C R 155 to give money they would have to come from my personal, family budget.I asked them about their opinion about the approach I should take during my research, i.e. how to proceed.Can I get some of their acquaintances without any reward or do I have to give some money to them?What would be the amount?If asked them about the amount first, with the pretext that I do not want to offend them, but they did not want to respond.Since I did not want to haggle, I proposed an amount of 500 MKD per conversation, to which they agreed.They told me that when they arrange the meetings with other interlocutors, they would quote this amount as a fixed amount since otherwise I will not get anybody to talk to.I advised that we should try this approach, but since I will give the money personally and I will not have enough money always, I will tell them when and with whom to arrange meetings..." (Field notes 2013).
Trans-local context: rearrangement of the "field" After having established contacts with the Center in Shuto Orizari, at the meetings where we got to know each other, when I told them about the neighborhood where I live, which borders Shuto Orizari we found out that a very close "friend" of theirs lives in my neighborhood, specifically in the street where I live and that after she came to visit from Italy they spend their weekends together at her parents' house.She was the daughter of my first neighbors Roma which are now deceased, and I knew that she lived in Italy, but I did not know that after her parents had died she came back for a specific period of time.I told them which house was mine, and they told me that they remembered me because when they would pass by my house they would often see me and my family in our backyard.This surprised me greatly because, for some time now, I have been trying to find people for my research and I have been trying to find them in, and all the while they were passing by my backyard?!After I started the conversations with my interlocutors, very often, the house of my "neighbor" was my ethnographic field.There, sometimes with one and more often with several interlocutors -their friends "friends" and "colleagues" -I implemented my research through "focus groups".We also worked in the yard of our house or indoors -usually with one interlocutor at a time, "conversing openly" for hours.According to what they said, the boundaries between the ethnographic field and the "personal" space, i.e.where I live every day, intertwined, in order to protect the identity of the interlocutors.This shows that the ethnographic field cannot always be bound, placed within a specific geographic or administrative framework which, in this case, are the imagined borders of the Roma ethnic community.In this case, the boundaries of my private, intimate and space and the "space of possibilities" also shift in order to create the research "field".This leads to an understanding of the ethnographic field as dynamic, meaning such as the researcher creates it within his/her research concept, i.e. "as comprehensive I C R 156 immersion presumes a singularity of focus and engagement" (Vered 2000, 5), when one attempts to adapt and combine sets of relationships and engagements developed within a specific context with those arising from other contexts in order to form the ethnography bearing the anthropologic knowledge.
Creating a local concept "both a man and a woman" In this research of sexuality, which we observe through the local systems related with the sex/gender of "women" specifically within the male, but also in the broader Roma community, the researcher must be present in the field in order to get a firsthand experience, but also "social ..., experience mediated by and constituted through the fieldworker's relationships with others" (Okely and Callaway 1992, 2;Vered 2000, 2).Therefore, the anthropologists recommend, and this applies to this research as well, that the researchers should participate, observe and collect verbal and nonverbal information and use them to build the context related to the sexuality of the interlocutors.Thus the researcher gets an understanding of the personal sex/gender notions of the interlocutor, expressed verbally through conversations, but also expressive through the corporeal aspects of the interlocutor, and completed through the visual impression that the interlocutors wish to make within the framework of the context.
As in this research I employ personal field investigations and most of my interlocutors have graduated from secondary education with the exception of one who has graduated from the 4 th grade of primary education, all are unemployed and recipients of social assistance.They see themselves and their families as impoverished.During the research, some of them would ask me to provide them with some old clothes, especially from my husband (blouses, trousers, man's shoes), then children's shoes and, particularly for the winter, warm jackets, boots and gloves.All of my interlocutors attend trainings within the sexual work programs in the civil society organizations and one of them is also the coordinator.
The empirical materials recommended for this ethnography included materials from the "Mapping and Study of Adolescents under the Greatest Risk of HIV/AIDS and STDs", as well as the interviews with people from the Roma community in order to rectify the injustice to those unjustifiably categorized within only one framework, i.e. in the category of men having sex with men (MSM) or men that have homosexual relations.The recommendations also included the interviews with "sexual workers" from Shuto Orizari conducted within this project, of which the most important for us are the ones that consider themselves as "gay" are most.
Therefore, the basic empirical materials in the focus of this ethnography, considers the life stories of the Roma born as male but which feel as girls/ C R 157 women and want to have partner and sexual relations with "men" and build such relationships in a way that makes them feel feminine.They have accepted and use the term buljàsh in the Roma language, "gej" singular and "gejci" plural in the Macedonian language.S.:"Feels as a woman, likes only men" (VN850123, 2013), "meaning handsome, beautiful, uhhhh, fancies sleeping with him, hooking up with him, have a relationship with him.It's like with any chick, right?..." (VN850123, 2013).The important thing here is that they feel feminine in their relationships with their partners and, in the sexual relationship, they identify themselves with the position "to do", "to fuck for profit".Due to peer pressure, as I will show later, some of my interlocutors had been in relationships with "women", some of them have children with "women", but in the buildup of their sexual/gender identity these relationships are either secondary or insignificant.Some of the interlocutors even speak repulsively about the sexual relations they had with "women".They consider acceptable societal relations with "women" to mean to be close friends or maybe be close like "sisters".Unlike their relationships with women, the interlocutors greatly value the relationships with their children and they build these relationships in a way that makes them feel feminine.The men call them khulàleja or khulalò.According to my interlocutors, their partners who, in their relationship with "women" in a male community, assume a more active position consider such a relationship as "normal".Therefore, they talk about them as "real men" that do not accept the term "gay" for themselves.
Inspired by the idea from the previous research work related to male homosexuality, initially, during the theoretic preparation I focused on topics related to masculinity and male sexuality.In the course of the research I realized that my theoretical direction must go in a completely different way.As said before, this text is about a rather peculiar "domestic model of gender" (Loizos and Papataxiarchis 1991, 5) which I would call a local system related to the sex/gender aspects in the Roma community where specific individuals build societal, cultural and economic values in ways that enable them, through several aspects and as much as possible to feel feminine and actualize themselves as "women".This local system relates to multiple segments of society such as cultural life, for example, the blood and alternative relation system.The local system of sex/ gender through ethnographic examples is viewed, on one hand, through the relation system with the close blood relatives -parents, siblings, children, and on the other hand through the alternative relations system with his "sisters" and "friends", i.e. "women with whom he hangs out and spends enjoyable moments.One of the important indications that they nurture mutual relations of sisterhood is that they emphasize that they do not have sexual relations with each other because they think of themselves as being the "same", i.e. "women".Here we can talk about sexuality which simultaneously relates to sex/gender, shifts the I C R 158 understanding of masculinity/femininity depending on how the individual looks at it and how he/she builds the notion about the personal biological sex.From a theoretical aspects, the interest will focus on a "set of ideas" (Loizos and Papataxiarchis 1991, 5) concentrated within the local system, wherein the interlocutors, depending on the needs, constantly undergo reformations regarding their personal sex/gender in order to satisfy their personal, every day, economic, sexual needs -as "women" when they interact with "boyfriends" they "fancy" or with "clients" to whom they "provide" sexual" services usually "in exchange for money".At the same time, they want to satisfy the needs of the other members of community, as "men", by fulfilling the expectations of the close relatives to get married, to become a "father" and form a family, and to preserve the "honor" of the family and the relatives by way of actualizing themselves as "men" in front of the "neighbors" and the "surrounding", thus becoming a successful and normal man within the Roma community.In many cases, when the parents deem that an age limit has been exceeded, they undertake the obligation to "solicit" a girl, without the boy knowing and in his absence.This happens especially if the parents begin to suspect the ability of their son to be with a woman.The parents usually intervene in coordination with the neighbors and friends, as well as the broader "environment" in order to publicly promote the marriage of their son whereby he becomes an actualized "man" in the community.
According to the ethnographic materials, the marriage of a boy represents a very important moment in the lifecycle, a time when people believe that if the boy is "able", he can go back to "normal".After a boy, that also feels as a "woman" marries, his relations with "men" become a part of the most intimate part of his life, hidden from the members of his family, and known only to his "girlfriends" or "sisters".Thus, from a theoretical standpoint, sexuality is seen through the prism of the personal point of view about the sex/gender of the interlocutors, in situations from which we find about his role in the alternative "relation" system, but also in the blood relation system, about his sex/gender role within the Roma community.These diverging concepts lead to conflicting identity positions, which the individual must find a way to overcome.This pressure from society on my interlocutors forces them to continuously devise strategies to overcome the conflicts in themselves, as well as the conflicts with the "environment" which tolerates them only if they benefit the reproduction of the community.This, at home and with the family, depending on who they live with, people stick to the socially accepted behavioral rules "as male", later "as a man", and outside of the home he tries to offset the pressure and live his life from the "prying eyes of the environment" and seeks out ways to control all of these things.
Sexuality, in addition to the context of norming sex/gender within the two systems of relations, which are one of the most important segments in the construction of the notions of personal sexuality with respect to sex/gender, is also C R 159 considered in relation to the local alternative economies and the sex/gender of interlocutors which, as "women", provide services to "man", and by providing sexual services, this system of sex/gender becomes a "good" offered in exchange for personal gratification -"whims" -or in exchange, through an alternative market network, "for money" or "for profit".By satisfying their personal and economic needs through the local economic systems, my interlocutors support the local sex/gender systems, as well as the variants of its material realization, sexuality.This confirms that when "sex workers" provide sex services "as women" in exchange "for money" or for other material compensation, but also when there is no fee, i.e. when they do it because of "fancy", they confirm and support their personal sexuality thereby confirming their place in the sex/ gender system.When the sex/gender of individuals serves as means for providing living essentials, i.e. when the sex workers make money from their clients to sustain themselves or, if they have a family, to financially support their family, then the members of their families tolerate this kind of work.This can be corroborated by the conclusion that the main characteristic of the local economies researched in other studies, is related to the people that sustain themselves from their environment and for that they receive material benefits.The material benefits are the main reason to support, motivate the perseverance of the local system of sex/gender, and, in these contemporary contexts, have it become an alternative market of sexual services.Some of the khulàleja should become sex workers within the Roma community, as well as outside of that community (according to the frequency of the interlocutors) in the cities of Gostivar, Tetovo, Prilep and outside of the Republic of Macedonia, in Italy and other places.The appearance of such alternative local economies can be linked to the low percentage of Roma included in the official societal, economic streams, as well as in the creation of policy with respect to ethnic groups, reflected primarily through the case of the Roma community in the Republic of Macedonia seen through the example of the Roma community in Skopje and the municipality of Shuto Orizari (for more details see Friedman 2002;Петровски 2013).This can also be corroborated by the substantive concept of local economies which suggests that the local economy represents "an instituted process of interaction between man and his environment, which results in a continuous supply of want satisfying material means.Want satisfaction is 'material', if it involves the use of material means to satisfy ends..." (Polanyi 1957, 248;Хан 2009, 76).In this case, the sex/gender local system in the Roma community around Skopje, plays an important role in the realization of the local societal, economic and cultural systems which mutually support each other in order to realize personal and/or collective cultural, societal, and economic needs.
The local system also functions on a symbolic level, reflected through family customs related to the cycle of life, "wedding" and, especially, in this context, I C R 160 the custom of "circumcision" or small wedding "tikno bijav" (Петровски 2013, 214) of the small Roma children.This reflects their magical-religious function within the community.According to the folk tradition, it is believed that the presence of a group of individual which are "both man and women" is important for the wellbeing of the masculine children and his family, and thus the broader community and the participants in the large and the small wedding (circumcision).Because of their important collective function, this local system is also supported by the family and the Roma community.It is interesting, and the ethnographic materials reflect this, that this collective tolerance does not exist only when it comes to customs, but is also related to the strongly expressed collective Roma norms which regulate the sexual relations of girls in order to preserve the "honor" and the girl to be "čhaj" (virgin, innocent, honorable) (Петровски 2013, 217) until her betrothal, when she will say "panljaripe lafi" (I am betrothed, I got engaged) (Петровски 2013, 216).Such norms that apply to girls, do not necessarily apply to boys.The male community tolerates sexual intercourse of boys, especially before marriage.According to the Roma tradition, it is very important for the Roma girls to be "lasses", "maidens", "unblemished" until the moment when "she is wooed" and when she will come to the house of the boy as a bride.This collective norm regarding the sexuality of females is especially rigorous because the girl progresses on her way to realize her rite of passage when she needs to transcend from girlhood into "womanhood", and become sexually active after marriage with the purpose of becoming a "mother".In this light, there is virtually not room for tolerance.However, according to the ethnographic materials, the girls, in order to comply with these norms, do practice anal sexual intercourse which, in this context, does not constitute a sexual relation, considering that the danger to lose one's "chastity" is avoided.At the same time, the regulation of sexual relationships of boys entails a greater level of tolerance, especially for "real men", which assume an inserting position during sexual intercourse, regardless of whether they have sex with women or men that "look like women", "dress like women" or women with whom they just kiss or have oral sex, if they are of a younger age, or also have anal sexual intercourse, if they are older.In the local alternative economic systems related to sex/gender, "real men" have the role of "boyfriend" or "client".

Conclusion
In the contemporary anthropologic research, the anthropology researchers constantly refer to the ethnographic work when they have to create anthropologic knowledge."Fieldwork" provides two meanings to anthropology, as a discipline that defines space as a space of possibilities, and as a discipline that defines space within set boundaries.Thus the researcher becomes an ethnographer who rec-C R 161 ognizes his/her "field".By that rationale, it does not exist until discovered by the ethnographer.Although one of the main principles in anthropologic research involves the traditional approach, meaning that if they want to conduct anthropologic research, anthropologists have to select "suitable" places for research, usually "faraway" in communities in impoverished countries or "domestically" where they would find an equivalent to the exotic, still more and more researchers understand field creation nontraditionally.I place myself in the group of "nontraditional" researchers and, in this ethnographic research I have a critical view against the discovering of "the exotic" necessarily "in other people", somewhere "faraway".This approach is applied to the building of the context that gives rise to the entire ethnography of the local concept "both a man and a woman" in the Roma community in Skopje.Thus, building the ethnographic "field" nontraditionally" we build a reflexive research concept, including auto-reflection.
The ethnographic "field" created in the Roma community in Skopje, but also created nontraditionally at the home of the researcher, together with the narratives of the interlocutors about the sexual scenes in Italy, can confirm the sex/ gender identity and its trans-local character, based on a local concept of "both a man and a woman" which is manifested in all levels of social life.
The focus of this ethnography considers the life stories of the Roma born as male but which feel as girls/women and want to have partner and sexual relations with "men", and build such relationships in a way that makes them feel feminine.They have accepted and use the term buljàsh in the Roma language, "gej" singular and "gejci" plural in the Macedonian language.In the sexual relationships with their boyfriends they identify themselves with the position "active doers", and when their sexuality gets an economic form, they identify themselves as "fucking for profit".The men pejoratively call them khulàleja or khulalò.According to my interlocutors, their partners who have the active position in their relations with the "women" in the male community consider this relationship to be "normal".Therefore they talk about them as "real men" which do not accept the term "gay" when describing themselves.
This local sex/gender system in the Roma community would not be a system if it is not supported by other systems in the community, like the blood and alternative relations systems, where they are tolerated if they benefit the reproduction of the community.The building of the notions about the personal sexuality, but also the sexuality of others with respect to sex/gender, is considered in relation to the local alternative economies, when the interlocutors have the role of "women" and provide services to "man", and the sex/gender system serves as a "good" offered in exchange for satisfaction of personal needs or "fancies", or as services that can be exchanged.In this way they confirm and support their personal sexuality, they confirm their place in the local sex/gender system in the Roma community in Skopje, as well as their symbolic place with respect to the traditional customs during the life cycle.