Light and Shadow

Isolation and Interaction in the Shala Valley of Northern Albania

edited by Michael L. Galaty, Ols Lafe, Wayne E. Lee and Zamir Tafilica

Book cover: Light and Shadow

Extent: 304 pages

Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press

Subjects: Anthropology, World Archaeology

Series: Monumenta Archaeologica

Series volume number: 28

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(April 2013)

ISBN: 9781931745710

8.46 x 10.94 inches

Price: $65.00

On back order

PDF (Published)

(December 2013)

ISBN: 9781938770913

Price: $52.00

Employing survey archaeology, excavation, ethnographic study, and multinational archival work, the Shala Valley Project uncovered the many powerful, creative ways whereby the men and women of Shala shaped their world: through dynamic, world-systemic relationships with the powers that surrounded but never fully conquered them. The Shala Valley Project presents the highlanders, the malesore, in the full complexity of their lives, while also unveiling a new, deeper history for the region–a history that reaches back to an unexpected fortified Iron Age site. Light and Shadow tells many stories. Archaeologists, historians, and students of tribes, of empires, of imperial-indigenous relations, of blood feud, of kinship, of the built landscape, of world-systems theory and sustainability science, and more, will find much here to digest. The people of Shala, to which Light and Shadow is dedicated, may serve as an example in our modern age, one in which persistent, tribal peoples still fight for their survival, and seek to preserve some degree of independence from capitalist economies bent on their incorporation.

  • Edited by Michael L. Galaty
  • Edited by Ols Lafe
  • Edited by Wayne E. Lee
  • Edited by Zamir Tafilica