Page 61 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

registers of identification that had been incom- beach rather than continuing my investigations
pletely erased by the dominant discourse of na- in the border villages. Such was my success that
tion states since the post-war period. This process I was photographed by many strangers whenev-
has taken place more generally by confronting er I went into public places. I decided that I did
the topicality of cross-border relations with the not want my presence to disturb the developing
permanence of the conflicting memories that are processes any longer, so I decided, for a while, to
present. In fact, despite the great diversity of the leave my investigation on the fragmentation of
accounts gathered, it seemed that the position of border societies in this very special region.
each of the inhabitants in the interplay of local
affiliations led them to look at the new Albanian References
migrants differently, depending on their experi- Agnew, J. 2009. Globalization & Sovereignty.
ences of the border. Some people, for example, New York: Lanham, Rowman &
were able to express a great closeness to the de- Littlefield. 61
scendants of Chams who left after the war while
ti indicating that one day, with the economic cri- Amilhat Szary, A.-L., and M.-C. Fourny.
2006. Après les frontières, avec la frontière,
sis that has been raging in Greece since 2009, it
would not be out of the question for migrants Nouvelles dynamiques transfrontalières
en Europe. La Tour d’Aigues: Editions de
ta nia. This surprising inversion suggests a certain Baltisiotis, L., and L. Embirikos. 2007. ‘De
from the 1990s to help them find work in Alba-
l’Aube.
relativity, or even reversibility, in the discourse
la formation d’un ethnonyme. Le terme
of belonging, which has been subject to power-
Arvanitis et son évolution dans l’Etat
di ful logics since the region became part of Greece hellénique.’ In Byzantina et Moderna, tales from the greek-albanian borderland ...
in 1912.
mélanges en l’honneur d’Hélène
Although it cannot be said that migration
Antoniadis-Bibicou, edited by G. Grivaud
is the sole factor in the (re)fragmentation of lo-
and S. Petmezas, 417–448. Athens:
cal society, it does seem to have played this role De Rapper, G. 1998. ‘La frontière albanaise:
here time, however, the reactivation of cross-border Gupta, A., and J. Ferguson. 1992. ‘Beyond
Alexandria.
in terms of certain discourses and practices of
some of the region’s inhabitants. At the same
famille, société et identité collective en
Albanie du sud.’ PhD diss., University
relations is today affected by the return to the
Paris Nanterre.
diplomatic agenda of the inter-state dispute over
the historical legitimacy of this border, making
“Culture”: Space, Identity, and the Politics
it difficult to conduct fieldwork on the complex
dynamics of belonging in the region. It is this
studiauniversitatis
6–23.
context of diplomatic and migratory tensions of Difference.’ Cultural Anthropology 7 (1):
that led to the suspension of my investigations Häkli, J., and D. Kaplan. 2002. ‘Learning
in the region in 2011. The many questions about from Europe? Borderlands in Social and
cross-border experiences that I asked my inter- Geographical Context.’ In Boundaries
locutors did not always leave the people I met in- and Place: European Borderlands in
different, and some ended up preferring not to Geographical Context, edited by D. Kaplan
see me again, or no longer responding to my re- and J. Häkli, 1–17. Lanham: Rowman &
quests. During my last investigation in July-Au- Littlefield.
gust 2011, it was two young men claiming to be Kretsi, G. 2007. Verfolgungund Gedächtnis in
police officers who, after having stopped my car Albanien: eine Analyse postsozialistischer
on the side of a mountain road, politely suggest- Erinnerungsstrategien. Wiesbaden:
ed that I spend the end of the summer at the Harrassowitz .