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Les Guègues et les Tosques existent-ils ? L’opposition Nord/Sud en Albanie et ses interprétations

Do Ghegs and Tosks Exist ? The North/South Division in Albania and its Interpretations
Gilles de Rapper
p. 625-640

Abstracts

The division of the Albanians in two ethnic groups, Ghegs in the north and Tosks in the south, is part of the basic knowledge on the Albanian population. Although well represented in Western literature on Albania, this ethnic reading is not shared by the Albanians scholars. According to them the two groups appear by the beginning of the 19th century when the Albanian-inhabited territories fall under two antagonistic centres of power, one in the north (Shkodër), the other in the south (Ioannina). Based on material collected in two southern districts, this article argues that the actual differences between north and south (in terms of language, dress and social organisation) are not perceived through the Gheg/Tosk division (those categories are hardly referred to). They are rather inter- preted through a frame in which north and south are one to the other what Muslims and Christians are in local society. The Muslim/Christian division thus appears as the basic division from which otherness and the relations between the different subgroups of society are conceived.

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References

Bibliographical reference

Gilles de Rapper, “Les Guègues et les Tosques existent-ils ? L’opposition Nord/Sud en Albanie et ses interprétations”Espace populations sociétés, 2004/3 | 2004, 625-640.

Electronic reference

Gilles de Rapper, “Les Guègues et les Tosques existent-ils ? L’opposition Nord/Sud en Albanie et ses interprétations”Espace populations sociétés [Online], 2004/3 | 2004, Online since 26 January 2009, connection on 18 April 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/eps/445; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/eps.445

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About the author

Gilles de Rapper

Institut d’ethnologie méditerranéenne et comparative, (IDEMEC), Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme, (MMSH), 5 rue du château de l’horloge - BP 647, 13094 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 2, derapper@mmsh.univ-aix.fr

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Copyright

CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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