Paper short abstract:

This paper examines three emblematic ethnographers in late 19th- and early 20th-century South-Eastern Europe, questioning the political subtext of their ethnographic writings, their experimentation with text formats and genres, and their humanitarian engagement in the region.

Paper long abstract:

In the final decades of the 19th century and until the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, South-Eastern Europe attracted a number of diverse ethnographers from different countries - all, to various degrees, and willingly or not, drawn into the paramount political matter of the time: the impending reorganisation of the Ottoman Empire into a series of successor states, mostly along perceived ethnic lines.

This paper deals with three emblematic writers of ethnography in the region during the period in question: Guillaume Lejean (1824-1871), author of a bilingual Ethnographie de la Turquie d'Europe, alongside other texts; Edith Durham (1863-1944), who published a series of ethnographic accounts of highland Albania; and Eugène Pittard (1867-1962), an anthropologist working mainly in the Dobrudja region claimed by both Romania and Bulgaria.

It is interesting to see to what extent all three ethnographers catered to Balkanist stereotypes while also effectively cutting through them, and in what ways their ethnographies reflect their inevitable political positioning.

All three writers experimented with different text formats and genres, taking advantage of the possibilities afforded by the burgeoning popular press of the time, as well as publishing book-length essays for the broader public. In the same vein, they also made innovative use of maps, illustrations and photographs.

Finally, the paper addresses the humanitarian engagement deployed by Lejeune, a campaigner against slavery, Durham, an occasional refugee aid worker, and Pittard, the founder of the Albanian Red Cross: how did these forms of ethic commitment influence their ethnographic stance?