UNIVERSITY OF NOVA GORICA GRADUATE SCHOOL CONTESTED SPACES AND NEGOTIATED IDENTITIES IN DHËRMI/DRIMADES OF HIMARË/HIMARA AREA, SOUTHERN ALBANIA DISSERTATION Nataša Gregorič Bon Mentors: Prof Borut Telban, Prof Duška Knežević Hočevar and Prof Sarah Green Nova Gorica, 2008 2 In memory of Vinko 3 Contents ABSTRACT 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 8 NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION 10 PREAMBLE 15 INTRODUCTION 26 Theoretical Frames: The Construction of Spaces and Places 29 Fieldwork Framers: Dhërmi/Drimades of Himarë/Himara Area 32 Dynamic Processes of Construction and Reconfiguration of 37 Dhërmi/Drimades and Himarë/Himara Area Contested Places and Spaces 40 CHAPTER ONE 43 1. THE VILLAGE AND ITS PEOPLE 1.1. The Area 43 1.2. Geomorphological Story 47 1.3. Dhërmi/Drimades 49 1.4. Ambiguous Name 52 1.5. Shifting Localities 55 1.5.1. Shifting of the “Local” 56 1.5.2. The “Local” and the “Other” – Distinctions and Interrelations 57 1.6. Languages 63 1.6.1. In Search of the “First Language” 65 1.6.2. Language and Education 67 1.6.3. Spoken Languages 69 1.6.4. Language as the Permit to “Enter” 70 1.7. Religion 71 1.7.1. Religion in Albania 71 1.7.2. Churches of Dhërmi/Drimades 72 1.7.3. Religion and Everyday Practices 74 1.7.4. Religion and Gender 76 4 1.7.5. Religion and Locality 77 1.8. Population: Shifting Numbers 78 1.9. Family, Linages and Clans 82 1.9.1. Ikoyenia or Familje 83 1.9.2. Soi or Fis 88 1.9.3. Çeta or Varka 91 1.9.4. Marrying within the Village 94 1.9.5. Inheritance 95 1.10. Summary 101 CHAPTER TWO 104 2. CONTESTED HISTORIES 2.1. Dividing People and Places 107 2.2. Mythohistories 113 2.2.1. Oral Accounts 113 2.2.2. Written Accounts 115 2.3. Different Views and Positions 117 2.4. Between the Contestations and Relations 122 2.4.1. Illyrian or Epirote? 122 2.4.2. Trading Overseas 124 2.4.3. Roman and Byzantine Empire 126 2.4.4. Construction of National Hero Skanderbeg 128 2.4.5. “Permanent Struggle” – Resistance to Ottomans 131 2.4.6. Movements of People 133 2.4.7. Ali Pasha of Tepelena 135 2.4.8. “Western” Visitors 137 2.4.9. Rilindja - Revival 140 2.4.10. Formation of the Albanian Nation-State and the Protocol of Corfu 142 (1914) 2.4.11. The First World War (1914-1918) 146 2.4.12. The Period of “Democratic Movements” (1920-1925) 152 2.4.13. Ahmed Zogu (1925-1939) 155 2.4.14. The Second World War (1939-1945) 159 5 2.4.15. Communism (1945-1990) 163 2.5. Summary 165 CHAPTER THREE 169 3. THE SEA AND THE MOUNTAINS 3.1. Stories and Story-Telling 170 3.1.1. Remembering, Mapping and the Ongoing Reconstruction 171 3.2.Stories of the Sea and the Mountains 172 3.2.1. Stories of the Sea 172 3.2.2. Stories of the Mountains 176 3.3. From Places to Spaces and Back Again 178 3.4. “Whereness” of Dhërmi/Drimades 182 3.5. Summary 188 CHAPTER FOUR 191 4. NEGOTIATING RUBBISH 4.1. Tourism on the Coast of Dhërmi/Drimades 193 4.1.1. Cleaning the Coast 194 4.2. Before the Summer Season 195 4.2.1. Identification and Belonging 200 4.2.2. Manipulating the Citizenship 202 4.3. The Summer Season 204 4.3.1. Rubbish as a “Matter out of Place” 208 4.4. Summary 211 CONCLUSION 214 Silent Stories of Communism 218 Contested or Related? 219 APPENDICES 223 BIBLIOGRAPHY 238 SUMMARY/POVZETEK 251 6 ABSTRACT The main subject of this thesis is the ongoing, unstable reconstruction of space and place in the village of Dhërmi/Drimades in Himarë/Himara area, Southern Albania. Particular consideration is given to the process of reconfiguration and redefinition of the meanings that pertain to the village and its people. Thesis focuses on local peoples’ biographies, oral histories, rhetorical claims and their everyday discourses, through which it is shown how the meanings of the village are reconstructed through their interrelations with other people and places. The underlying theme of my dissertation is the continuity of movements and interrelations through which the local people of Dhërmi/Drimades recreate and reproduce the sense of locatedness of “their” village and themselves. My research question is formed on the premise that the international, national and local policies, historiographers and other researchers define these people and places as if they had existed and belonged to nation-state “since ever”. Through description of the village and its people (Chapter One) and through analysis of the contemporary historiography (Chapter Two) I show how the policies, historiographers, demographers and geographers in various ways and with various subjective interests conceptualise, categorise and locate the village and its people into a geopolitical map of the nation-states, as preordained and closed entities. In continuation (Chapter Three and Four) the local peoples’ stories, their biographical backgrounds, rhetorical claims and management of resources are represented to illustrate the manners in which local people themselves redefine and reproduce the meanings of the nation-states as hegemonic concepts, which enables them to reconstruct their sense of belonging and locate the village in the geopolitical map of the Europe and the world. These processes of reconstruction are always in a state of be-coming and constitute the spaces and places, with its meanings on the one hand revealing the differences and contestations between them, while on the other hand also showing their mutual connections and sameness. 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During my PhD training I had the honour and pleasure of working with a number of extraordinary people and institutions. I am grateful to be able to thank them here explicitly. Most crucial of course were and still are the people of Dhërmi/Drimades, who allowed me to enter their village life. Special gratitude extends to all of the people of the central hamlet of Dhërmi/Drimades for giving me so much of their time, sharing their stories, friendship and shelter. Here I would like to acknowledge the family of Thoma Kumi, who welcomed me wholeheartedly in the very first days of my settlement in the village. I also thank Niko and Boula Beli and other members of Belei soi/fis, especially Amalia, today married as Konomi, who introduced me to many relatives who live in the village and showed me the majority of the chapels in the village and surrounding mountains. I am grateful to Enea Kumi for his help with translations and all the explanations to my endless queries. I am bound to the family of Aristridi Iliadhi, of Marko Gjikopuli, to Lefter and Elsa Kumi, Foto and Katerena Bixhili, Kozma Papasava, Petro Dhima, Katina Çula, Doksia and her daughters, Athina, family Lavdoshi and many others whose names will stay unmentioned here. My appreciations extend to the villagers of Palasa where I conducted a part of my research. Soia/fise Verei, Niklei, Milei and Babei deserve a special mention here. I am indebted to my interpreter Juliana Vera who patiently helped me to understand, both local Greek dialect as well as Albanian language. She, her sisters and father always welcomed me in their home. Similarly, Nevila Kocollari Furhxiu and her family deserve a special mention here. They introduced me to the field and helped me whenever I needed them. Although I left too many stories untold, I hope that these generous people will recognise themselves in this text, and that my work will contribute to our future relationship and further discussions. Faliminderit shumë/Euharisto para poli! Fundamental for this project was a two-year funding from the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport which enabled me to do the research in the villages of Himarë/Himara area. I am deeply indebted to my supervisors Borut Telban, Duška Knežević Hočevar and Sarah Green. All of them patiently guided me throughout the writing of my thesis. Sarah Green was especially helpful with her comments on my observations from the field, which I was sending her while on fieldwork. Through her pedagogic touch and understanding she always found the way to present her comments on the first drafts of my thesis in a stimulating, constructive way. Borut’s critique and meticulosity made my argumentation stronger. And Duška always 8 found her time to listen to my sometimes very chaotic thoughts and helped me to spell them out and find the sense in them. I thank them all for their help, comments and suggestions. My warm appreciation goes to various other people who supplied me with anthropological literature, provided me with various data and shared their ideas. Here I thank: Margaritis Gjoka, Kristaq Jorgji, Enkeleida Tahiraj, Juli Vullnetari, Stephanie Schwandner Sievers, Gilles de Rapper and Konstandinos Tsitselikis. I am grateful to my colleagues Liza Debevec for her useful and practical advises and to Sarah Lunaček, Špela Kalčić and Tina Popovič who found their time and interest to listen to my thoughts and monologues. I thank the faculty’s secretary Teja Komel for all of her help and my brother Jani for his assistance in map-making. I wish to acknowledge the loving support of my parents and my sister and her family. Immense gratitude extends to my husband Jure Bon, to whom I owe my greatest debt. I thank him for his assistance, understanding, intellectual and emotional support throughout my long- term absences and writing seclusions. Last but not least I also thank my father in law, whose life path ended before he could see the final result of this research.