university of nova gorica graduate school contested spaces and ...

INTRODUCTION
I was led to the study of spatial concepts by a long path, grounded in my interest for the
anthropology of Melanesia. As an undergraduate student (1996-2001) I conducted a shortterm
research in one of the villages of Oro province in Papua New Guinea. I continued with
postgraduate studies, completing a bit longer fieldwork on the Goodenough Island of Papua
New Guinea. At that time, during the writing of my M.A. thesis, I became interested in the
conceptualisations of space and place following the land tenure conflicts that seemed to
constitute the most important issue not only in Bwaidoga village but also elsewhere on
Goodenough and Papua New Guinea in general. In trying to resolve their disputes over the
landownership, people there often resorted to “customary” principles by recalling myths 4 and
local genealogies, which were, due to the political, economical, social and cultural changes,
reconstructed and appropriated anew. These relations between land conflicts and continuous
reconstruction of peoples’ identity, belonging and locatedness stimulated my interest in the
studies of spatial notions such as place, space, location and landscape.
Paths and tracks that a student takes throughout her/his doctoral research often collide with
different entanglements and barriers before reaching the final point. The path of my doctoral
research met such barrier in its very start, when I was trying to obtain a research visa to
conduct a longer fieldwork in Papua New Guinea. In the middle of a difficult period, I shared
my worries with a colleague from my student years. She asked me a crucial question: “Is it
possible to do fieldwork somewhere else and maintain the same topic of your interest?” and
suggested that I could do my fieldwork perhaps more easily in a number of other locations in
“Albania, for instance, which was a completely isolated country no more than 14 years ago”.
Shortly after my discussion with a friend I went on a preliminary visit (September 2004) to
different places in Albania, especially those in its southern part. It was then and there that I
decided to follow my interest in spatial concepts and to conduct my ethnographic fieldwork in
one of the coastal villages of the Himarë/Himara area. Between December 2004 and
December 2005 I spent twelve months in Southern Albania. Why did I choose
Himarë/Himara and, as it turned out, the village of Dhërmi/Drimades? There is no straight
answer to this question. It seems that a combination of different factors guided my decision.
4 On myths and their relation to decsent group's origins in Bwaidoga village, Papua New Guinea I discussed in
Bwaidogan Myths of Origin (2003: 61-87).
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