Mapping Marriage Law in Spanish Gitano Communities

Comparative law and legal anthropology have traditionally restrictedthemselves to their own fields of inquiry. Mapping Marriage Law inSpanish Gitano Communities turns this tendency on its head andinvestigates what happens when the voices of each discipline areinvited to speak to each other. Susan Drummond forges this hybrid formof comparative work through small- and large-scale studies of Gitanomarriage law as it emerges in a Western European state, in a modernurban centre, and in particular communities and families.

Drummond’s mapping of Gitano marriage law is grounded inethnographic fieldwork in Andalucia. The study draws initially from thetradition of comparative law to focus on the emergence of Spanish statefamily law in a predominantly national and international context.Drummond then adopts the role of legal anthropologist to examine aparticular legal culture that exists within, and also beyond, theSpanish state: that of the Gitanos and the transnational Roma.Ultimately, she brings the international, national, and culturaldimensions of law into play with one another and contemplates how allof these influences bear on the spirit of Andalusian Gitano marriagelaw. The result is an ethos of marriage law in a thoroughly mixed legaljurisdiction.

Mapping Marriage Law in Spanish Gitano Communities willappeal to scholars and students in comparative law and legalanthropology, as well as readers interested in Roma studies in general,and the Gitanos in particular.