The bathing of the “dirty”: A forgotten forced bathing in Hungary

Bakó, Boglárka (2014) The bathing of the “dirty”: A forgotten forced bathing in Hungary. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 59 (1). pp. 191-210. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

In 1977, there was a one-time forced bathing of Roma people in the Pest county village, the subject of this article. Seemingly, no memory of the event has survived within the Romungro community: the villagers do not remember if Roma people were ever forced to submit to bathing. There is more than one reason for this: first, after the first occasion the authorities abandoned the idea, therefore its one-time memory has faded away over time. Second, because of its shameful connotation the participants were unwilling to talk about it. They did not talk about it since it could have evoked the memory of the “dirty Roma” in a community where purity and dirtiness are basic mental categories. Through concepts used by the community concerning purity and order this article explores what local Roma think about the forced bathing of the past. It examines how they conceive those events which seem to have no memory in the community.

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