BETWEEN GEOGRAPHY AND MOTIVES. MAPPING THE BALLAD OF IMMUREMENT IN ALBANIA IN THE 20th CENTURY
BETWEEN GEOGRAPHY AND MOTIVES. MAPPING THE BALLAD OF IMMUREMENT IN ALBANIA IN THE 20th CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: I shall start by drawing a line of division between the practice of foundation sacrifice and its representations or references to it in the form of songs, legends or tales. The practice is well-known and well documented by different historical sources in different times and in various parts of the world, definitively in Euro-Asia from Japan and China to England, but also in such remote places like New Zealand. Its existence since early historic times is supported by direct archaeological data, and indirectly by myths and legends referring to human sacrifice. Representations, or spiritual reaction to these practices, do vary and include songs (mostly in the Balkans and Hungary), legends (in the Caucasus), tales (in western Europe and England), and even historical accounts (in Germany and France). The songs, mainly in the forms of the ballads, were documented and collected especially in the area south of Danube, all throughout the Balkans and stretching further east to modern Turkey and the Caucasus, where the motive embodies mostly in legends, tales and stories.

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