7 Living Among the Dead: Establishing and Maintaining Community in Northern Albania

While bioarchaeology and mortuary analysis are inextricably woven into the study of past populations, modern communities provide valuable insight into the complex relationships between past and present. Population movements, both past and present, affect community dynamics and can be traced through careful, diachronic study of regional mortuary monuments and practices. The northern Albanian province of Shkodër is an ideal testing ground for examining social changes accompanying the regional movement of both people and things. I contend that Bronze Age and modern communities have used mortuary monuments, mounds, and cemeteries, similarly, to encourage and discourage social contextual interaction.