Since the other—the barbarian, the untouchable, the marginal—is always the one on the other side of the walls (real or figurative) of the polis, it is only natural that because of their way of life the Roma people became one of the historical incarnations of alterity. The topology of their culture, which led to their fame as swindlers, petty criminals and child thieves, has made them a stateless people—quite literally banned. Over the centuries since their arrival in Europe, the Roma have been victims of numerous persecutions, expulsions and other atrocities such as the policy of sterilization of Roma women by the Czechoslovak government from 1973 to 1989. During the Second World War, they were subjected by the Nazis and the Croatian Ustasha to a genocide known as the Porajmos (the devouring), in which an estimated of 250,000 to one million Roma died in extermination camps.

The logic of ethnic cleansing becomes clearer in the light of our topology: those who do not live within the hunting park and abide by its laws must necessarily be hunted and exterminated.