CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Rojas Molina, Grabiela Virginia |
|---|---|
| Title | Placing Identities? Socio-Spatial Relations in Shkoder in the Fourteenth Century |
| Summary | This research focuses on the terms used in Shkoder in the first half of the fourteenth century to identify the people who were in contact with the city and its surroundings. The identification of “Albanians” (Albanenses), their economic activities, dwelling places, and (apparent) ethnic characteristic appear to be a counterpoint to the activities and (self-)identification of citizens (Scutarenses) and foreigners. Previous scholarship mainly assumed the correspondence of these names with ethnic characteristics without considering further variables. In consequence, this thesis seeks to answer the following questions: how did contemporary legal documents about Shkoder referred to different social groups? Did their distribution in different parts of the city play a role in such identification? Was this spatial division purely physical or did it also affect the access of certain people to city institutions? Is the city, contrary to “nation” or “ethnicity” a useful conceptual tool to analyse these overlapping identities? The investigation addresses these questions in relation to the areas surrounding the city and then moves forward to go into the socio-spatial dynamics inside the city walls. Thanks to this approach, the sources reveal that the positioning of people in relation to the city space did play a role in how they were named and identified in contemporary documents. |
| Supervisor | Jaritz, Gerhard |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/molina_grabiela.pdf |
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