Pelasgic Encounters in the Greek-Albanian Borderland. Border Dynamics and Reversion to Ancient Past in Southern Albania

Gilles de Rapper (1)

1 IDEMEC - Institut d'ethnologie méditerranéenne, européenne et comparative

In the last ten years, a great number of books and articles dedicated to Pelasgians have been published in Albania, mostly by amateur historians and linguists. These books not only question the official discourse on the Illyrian origin of Albanians inherited from the socialist era. They also question the relationship of Albanians with Greeks, both in ancient times and in the present. Considering the fact that a significant number of those authors originate from southern Albania and that their books are widely read and appreciated in this Albanian borderland, this article argues that the recent success of Pelasgic theories can be partially explained by the new uses of the border in the post-1991 context and by the state of relations between Albanians and Greeks as experienced at the local level. Imagining the Pelasgians as prestigious ancestors appears as an answer to feelings of inequality and marginality related to new practices of the border.

Mots clés: Prehistory; Albania; Greece; Border; Pelasgians

Mots clés: Balkans; Albanie; Grèce; frontière; Pélasges; imagination; préhistoire; migration

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Archéologie et Préhistoire; Etudes classiques; Histoire

Gilles de Rapper. Pelasgic Encounters in the Greek-Albanian Borderland. Border Dynamics and Reversion to Ancient Past in Southern Albania. Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 2009, 18 (1), pp.50-68. ⟨10.3167/ajec.2009.180104⟩. ⟨halshs-00400327v2⟩