2006/01/01 by Anna Di Lellio, Stephanie Schwandner‐Sievers · 13 citations
Social Sciences · #Balkans: History, Politics, Society #Turkey's Politics and Society #Religious Tourism and Spaces #History #Ancient history #Political science
paper · pdf · doi:10.3167/146526006780457315
published in Journeys 7(1) (Berghahn Books)
openalex publication_date 2006/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
The site of an infamous Serb massacre of a militant Albanian extended family in March 1998 has become the most prominent sacred shrine in postwar Kosovo attracting thousands of Albanian visitors. Inspired by Smith's (2003) 'territorialization of memory' as a sacred source of national identity and MacCannell's (1999 [1976]) five-stage model of 'sight sacralization', this article traces the site's sacred memorial topography, its construction process, its social and material reproductions, and adds a sixth stage to the interpretation - the 'political reproduction'. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the commemorative literature emanating from this shrine and on numerous interviews with core protagonists (including former guerrilla) and visitors, the article explores the ways in which the religious themes of martyrdom and sacrifice, as well as traditionalist ideals of solidarity and militancy, are embodied at the site and give sense to a nation-wide celebration of ethno-national resistance, solidarity and independence.