Albanians

Albanians

ETHNONYMS: Albanoi, Arbër, Arbëresh, Arnauts, Arvanites, Shqiptars

Orientation

Identification and Location. Albania is nearly two-thirds mountainous, covering 10,710 square miles (28,748 square kilometers) of southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro, Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece, and Italy, which lies 70 miles (112 kilometers) across the Adriatic Sea at the Strait of Otranto. The national borders were first recognized in 1921 but had been wider and more ethnically inclusive after the 1913 Balkan Wars and during the period of fascist occupation (1941-1944). In the early 2000s, nearly as many Albanians (more than three million) lived in adjacent neighboring states as lived in their homeland and even more were part of a worldwide diaspora.

Greeks call historically assimilated Christian Albanians Arvanites orArbër and refer to recent Albanian immigrant workers as Arvanoi (Albanoi). Ptolemy described the Albanoi, which produced the modern ethnonym Albanians, in the second century b.c.e. as an Illyrian tribe whose town was Albanopolis. In early Byzantine times Arvanites or Arvanoi were mentioned by Michael Attaliates and Anna Komnene; a principality of Arbanon developed in today's central Albania in the period 1190-1230, and in 1272 the Neapolitan Charles of Anjou proclaimed himself Rex Albaniae. In southern Italy Albanians are known as Arbëresh. The term Arnauts designates Albanians in the service of the Ottoman Empire. Shqiptar, the Albanian self-designation, in popular etymology relates to shqiponjë (the eagle) as the symbol of the mountains, the emblem of the medieval national hero Gjergji Kastrioti (Skanderbeg), and the national flag. In Slavic languages, Šiptari has a derogatory connotation while Albanski is a neutral term. Albanians is the internationally used name.

Demography. After the postcommunist political transition the birth rate decreased from 2.5 percent in 1990 to 1.8 percent in 1998, although it is still high by European standards. In 1996, life expectancy reached 71.4 years and 75 percent of the population was younger than age thirty-five. The crude mortality rate ranged between 5.4 and 5.7 per thousand. These figures suggest a large population increase, but the population decreased slightly from nearly 3,286,000 in 1990 to an estimated 3,284,000 in 1998 because of emigration. After the mobility restrictions of the communist regime ended, approximately 15.6 percent of the population, mostly young and middle-aged men (70.7 percent of all immigrants) and also young families, emigrated primarily for economic reasons. Emigrants' remittances constitute an estimated one-fifth of the nation's gross domestic product. In 1999 there were approximately 500,000 Albanian migrant workers in Greece, 200,000 in Italy, 12,000 in Germany, 12,000 in the United States, 5,000 in Canada, 2,500 in Belgium, 2,000 in France, and 2,000 in Turkey. Internal migration has depopulated poverty-stricken rural areas, while urban areas such as the Tirana district have nearly doubled in size (from 374,500 in 1990 to 618,200 in 1999).

Linguistic Affiliation. Albanian belongs to its own branch of Indo-European, with influences from Latin, Greek, Slavic languages, and Turkish. Dialect differences—roughly categorized as Gheg (north) and Tosk (south of the Shkumbin River)—were first nationally standardized on the basis of the central Albanian northern Tosk dialect during communist times. The Latin alphabet has officially been used since 1908. For patriotic reasons, Kosovar Albanian Gheg speakers adopted the standardized variant in 1968. The dialects differ at every level from phonetics to grammar to vocabulary.

History and Cultural Relations

Archaeological evidence of Illyrian settlement dates from the second millennium b.c.e. Illyria was in the orbit of the ancient Greek civilization and after 158 b.c.e. was controlled by the Roman Empire. Whether there was pre-Slavic settlement by Albanians in Kosovo is a matter of controversy. After Hun, Gothic, and Slavic invasions, by 750 the area was under Byzantine rule. It was under Bulgarian rule from 851 to 1014, under Norman rule from 1081 to 1185 and then areas came under the Neapolitan control of Charles of Anjou, under Serbian rule from 1334 to 1347, and under Venetian control until 1393. In the mid-fifteenth century Prince Gjergji Kastrioti (Skanderbeg) reconverted to Christianity and led the ethnically mixed allies of the 1444 League of Lezha in resisting Ottoman control. At the beginning of the sixteenth century all Albanian territories were under Turkish rule. Under the Ottomans—governing indirectly—various customary rules of self-regulation called kanun flourished. Islamization of nearly two-thirds of the population resulted from tax pressures on the Christians (raya), the recruitment of Christian children for the janissary corps (devşirme), the flight of many Christians to Greece and southern Italy, and the disintegration of church structures. There were opportunities for social and professional improvement in the Ottoman army and administration, and Albanians gained high feudal and military positions under the sultans. Modern Albanian historiography locates the national "rennaissance" (rilindja) in the nineteenth century, when the first uprisings against the disintegrating empire occurred. Schooling became a disputed question. Muslim and Greek Orthodox schools existed alongside Italian-supported schools and the Austro-Hungarian Kultusprotektorat Catholic schools, of which only the latter eventually promoted the use of Albanian after 1880.

In 1912 Albania was declared an independent nation. However, only after the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913 and a half-year interlude of rule by the foreign Prince Wilhelm zu Wied in 1914 was Albanian independence recognized internationally in 1920. A semidemocratic government under Bishop Fan Noli was overthrown in 1924 by troops of Ahmet Bej Zogu, a northern tribal leader who was proclaimed King Zog in 1928. He fled the country as a vassal of Mussolini's fascist Italy in 1939. During occupation by the Germans during World War II, southern Albanians cooperated as partisans with the English on the eventual victorious side while many northern monarchists sided with the Germans.

These antagonisms caused postwar show trials until 1950, and many of the northern Albanian men were executed as collaborators. Under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha (1946-1985) Albanian political "isolationism" was expressed in the building of 250,000 concrete bunkers throughout the country. Yugoslavia was its patron state until the 1948 Corn-inform conflict. The Stalinist Soviet Union served as a patron from 1948 to 1961, and the People's Republic of China was the patron state until 1978. In a period of increasing budget deficits, starvation, and protests, Hoxha's successor, Ramiz Alia, began democratization reforms within the communist system in the late 1980s. In 1990, at a time of mass flight and student demonstrations, religious freedom, party pluralism, free elections, minority rights, the right of free expression, and the right to have a passport were granted.

The postcommunist transition period was characterized by a major international development presence ("international patronage"), mass migration, political polarization, and destabilization. Northern rural communities faced a vacuum of the previously omnipresent state power. After fraudulent elections in 1996 and the overnight loss of the population's savings in "pyramid schemes" in 1997, state institutional structures disintegrated, and the population armed itself from communist-built army depots. An international military presence and strict monitoring of elections led to political and economic stabilization. Albania successfully coped with the influx of nearly half a million refugees from Kosovo in 1999 and remained neutral during Albanian guerrilla warfare in Macedonia in 2001.

Settlements

During the communist period approximately two-thirds of the population lived in rural, agriculturally dominated areas. During the 1990s the urbanization rate increased radically, and it is expected that early in the twenty-first century there will be equal rural and urban populations. Historical urban centers had developed at major trading routes connecting mountains with lowlands and hinterlands with the coast (Berat, Elbasan, Shkodër), at major ports (Durrës, Sarandë, Vlorë), and at centers on the highland plains (Gjirokastër, Korçë, Kukës, Peshkopi) or coastal plains (Kavaje, Lezhë). Tirana gained national significance only when it became the capital in 1920. Under communism cities with specific administrative, economic, or industrial functions (for example, mining and agricultural cities) developed out of previously rural settlements. Brick buildings lacking plastering, apartment blocks called palati, and central community buildings for each settlement ("house of culture") are reminders of communist housing policies. In the early 1990s, 95 percent of houses were privatized.

Village settlements in the northern mountains are characterized by the coresidence of agnatic groups and patrilineages so that territorial and kinship principles of social organization—despite communist attacks on "patriarchal traditions"—overlap. Hardly any traditional kullë remain from Ottoman times: These were traditional fortified tower houses of stone with slits for light in the lower floor and closable windows above, adapted to the threat of brigandage, foreign invasion, and blood feuds. Precommunist houses were built of stone and timber with a central fireplace for the extended family and a formal reception room. Within walking distance of the village, wattle and daub constructions on summer pastures (bjeshkë) offered shelter during the period of dairy production in the summer months. In Muslimdominated rural regions stone wall enclosures were built for socioreligious and defensive purposes. Houses in areas with a Mediterranean climate have a porch that serves in the summer as a place for cooking, sleeping, and living. In these areas the influence of modern Greek architecture can be observed. There are a few remaining manor houses of former latifundia holders (the çiftlik system) and some castles of aristocratic families.

Economy

Subsistence. The extended household was based on a semiautonomous subsistence economy of horticulture, agriculture, and shepherding (sheep, goats, and cattle). Kurbet, labor migration prompted by poverty, in which one adult male family member works abroad and sends home remittances, was common both in precommunist times and afterward. Historically, many Albanians became wandering craftsmen with skills in areas such as house construction throughout what was known as the "European Turkey" of Ottoman times. One son in an extended family might have had to serve in the Ottoman army, which provided additional income.

The communist command economy fostered industrialization and the expropriation and nationalization of the means of private production. Farming was integrated in cooperatives and state collective farms. These policies led to the mass slaughter of animals and periods of starvation in the 1980s. There was widespread unemployment despite a "full-occupation" policy. In the postcommunist 1990s the official unemployment rate exceeded 18 percent. In 1999, 70 percent of employed persons worked in agriculture to meet subsistence needs. Foreign aid, migrants' remittances, and the informal sector became the pillars of the economy.

Industrial Arts. Traditional crafts include fine silver and gold filigree work; felt hats, vests, and trousers; wood carvings for interior decoration; soapstone carvings; wicker work decorations on small storage boxes; woodwork on traditional cradles, bridal chests, and spoons; musical instruments such as the two-stringed çifteli, the one-stringed lahuta, and shepherds' flutes; and embroidery and other needlework produced by women. Since the late communist period these products have been sold as souvenirs to tourists.

Trade. Famous for trading roads such as the Roman Via Egnatia and the port of Durrachium (Durrës) in classical times, trade was severely restricted in the communist era by principles of internal autonomy ("no import without export"). Exports included iron ore, chromites, electricity from plants in the north, gas, agricultural products, and a few finished goods such as textiles, timber, chemical products, plastics, cigarettes, and tobacco. Imports consisted of grain, luxury goods, machinery, vehicles, and chemical and electromechanical products. In postcommunist times small and medium-scale enterprises quickly developed but suffered considerably from the collapse of the pyramid schemes. Textiles, food, furniture, and electrical domestic products were imported from neighboring countries and Turkey. In the informal sector, border contraband of tobacco, coffee, dairy products, and cannabis sativa from home production constituted private subsistence activities in the late 1990s; trafficking in narcotics, cars, oil, refugees, and women (for prostitution) was engaged in by internationally organized criminal networks and enriched only a few Albanians.

Division of Labor. In traditional Albanian society labor was allocated by the "lord of the house" among the men and by the "mistress of the house" among the women, with authority held according to seniority. Men generally took responsibility for all work outside the immediate neighborhood, and women for work within those bounds. Under communism many women were employed outside the home in industry and cooperative agriculture. This led to a double burden rather than female empowerment. In 2000 the official female unemployment rate was 21 percent, in comparison to 15 percent for men.

Land Tenure. Traditionally, the agnatic corporate group jointly held farmland. Pastures were owned as "communal land" by the village, and sales to outsiders were not permitted. In the plains the çiftlik system of land ownership integrated previously independent villages under the rule of feudal lords called bejlerët (plural of bej, or "landowner"). Mixed systems developed north of Tirana. In 1947 land reforms divided large estates into agricultural cooperatives and small-scale farmland for former tenants. Soon persecuted as "kulaks," these tenants also suffered expropriation. Full socialist state collectivization was achieved in 1967. In 1991 a new law ordered the division, registration, and distribution of collectivized farmland. Half a million hectares of agricultural land were to be allocated to former cooperative workers, creating small parcels. However, collision with reemerging customary inheritance laws based on kinship frequently led to conflicts with neighbors and the law.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. In the traditional highland regions territorial and patrilineal kinship principles overlapped. Genealogical knowledge of patrilineal descent from a common fictitious ancestor, facilitated by mnemonically efficient naming practices, justified claims to territory. Postmarital rules of virilocal residence assured the reproduction of corporate residence clusters of agnatic groups. Concentrically organized, segments included the extended house (shpi), the brotherhood (vëllazeri) or neighborhood (mehallë), and the patrilineage or tribe (fis). The patrilineage was called "the tree of blood" (lisi i gjakut), and the matrilateral kin "the tree of milk" (lisi i temblit). Kinship in the southern and central regions tended to have more bilateral orientations shaped by Greek Orthodox or Islamic rules. Communist modernization practices promoted nuclear families. Crises, poverty, and the migrations of the postcommunist era have resulted in further nuclearization of family ties while temporarily strengthening traditional bonds in Kosovo and Macedonia.

Kinship Terminology. Traditional kinship terminology is classificatory with bifurcate and merging features and is governed by the principles of age seniority, fratristic (brotherly) coresidence, and gender differentiation. Patrilateral cousins are referred to as brother (vëlla) and sister (motër), siblings' descendants as grandchildren (nip/mbesë), the mother's brother as dajë, and the father's brother as mixhë. Bacë is used to refer to the oldest brother or uncle or sometimes the father (whoever has the highest authority in the shpi); dadë is the female equivalent. Originally, the zot i ships, the "lord of the house," called all young men of the shpi "my son," the girls "my daughter," and every married woman "my wife." Nusë was originally the name given to a young bride who had not yet given birth, but it later was used to designate all in-married women.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Northern traditions included ideals of seven- to fifteen-generation exogamy that were subverted by the forgetting of matrilateral relations. Marriages are still arranged in the rural regions of Kosovo and Macedonia and in northern Albania. Postmarital virilocal patterns of residence determine power relations within families. Traditional customs of bride-price payment, ritual lamenting during separation, the bridal procession, and the symbolic subordination of the bride at the ritual stage of integration into the husband's family's house have been reestablished in the north. Rare relics of precommunist practices include swearing eternal virginity and becoming a classificatory male to escape unwanted marriage ("sworn virgins"), the levirate, the rejection of infertile women, infant betrothal, and bridal kidnapping. In the 1990s the regional reemergence of traditional practices may have facilitated trafficking in women. Turkish, Greek, and West European marriage styles have influenced most Albanian weddings. Divorce, which formerly was almost unthinkable, is increasing.

Domestic Unit. The traditional rural domestic unit was shaped by fratristic, patrifocal, and virilocal principles subsumed under the originally Slavic-derived term zadruga. In the late 1990s the average family had two rooms, with two people sharing each room. Restricted space and deficits in the social security system explain the presence of three-generational domestic units, although young people express a preference for neolocal postmarital residence. Remittances from migrant labor are preferably put toward home improvement, particularly sanitary improvements.

Inheritance. Traditionally, inheritance of land was corporate and patrilineal. Pressures involving land resulted in the expansion of territory, the splitting of a family, or migration. Women were materially compensated only through a dowry. Both communist and precommunist reforms introduced equal rights but had little sustainable success in rural areas.

Socialization. Traditionally, children seldom addressed adults and owed respect and servitude to their elders. During adolescence boys were given a weapon; girls were expected to produce needlework as a contribution to the dowry. Baptism, the first haircut, and in Muslim areas circumcision were important rites of passage. In early communist times an 80 percent illiteracy rate was fought (and ideological control established) by providing daycare and kindergarten, and primary, middle, and high school education to every child. Schooling was based on the ideological "triangle of education, productive work, and physical and military training." Postcommunist schooling has suffered from teacher shortages in rural areas and overcrowded classrooms in urban areas, high rates of dropping out, and the survival of authoritative or nationalistic teaching methods. Nevertheless, education is highly valued.

Sociopolitical Organization

Political Organization. Traditionally, every "lord of the house" and the village elders of the patrilineages had a voice in the village or tribal assembly (kuvënd). Ottoman military rankings regionally coexisted with or substituted for the kinship-based sociopolitical representation system. The "standard-bearer" (bajraktar), regionally a vojvod or bey, had administrative and juridical functions in peacetime and exerted leadership during war. The Communist Party replaced traditional authorities with functionaries at all levels and maintained control through totalitarian methods, including an omnipresent secret police (sigurimi). Party pluralism, which was introduced in 1990, inaugurated a highly polarized political landscape dominated by the Socialist and Democratic parties. With the exception of 1997, elections were internationally considered relatively free and fair, although crises provoked widespread political fatigue. Nongovernmental organizations such as cultural, labor, sports, and other associations are gaining influence, although they rely heavily on foreign sponsors.

Social Control. Village gossip, slander, and ignoring were used to sanction improper actions and words. "Honor" (ndera) was a social status assigned to someone who conformed to the collective values of kin and friendship solidarity. This was also expressed in distinctions between the "faithful" and "traitors." The concept of besa covers social relations that extend kin ties to former strangers who have become friends (mik, plural miqe). The meanings of besa include word of honor, security guarantees, hospitality (and protection of a guest), alliance guarantees, friendship ties (including to a former blood enemy), and responsibilities to one's wife's agnates. Ndera described not only qualities such as personal strength, masculinity, dignity, family integrity, hospitality, and the capacity for defense but also a person generously sharing the profits from the sheep trade. Maintaining a facade of "honor" was as significant as displaying readiness to kill in retaliation for transgressions. The option of feuding was understood to deter transgressions in the highly competitive and resource-poor northern highlands.

Communist ideological practices differentiated people into those "faithful" to the regime and "traitors." Individual liability was introduced with postcommunist legal and police reforms aimed at implementing the rule of law and providing internal security.

Conflict. Local feuding and revenge killings emerged after 1991 over private land conflicts, irrigation rights, injustices suffered under communism, and conflicts of interest and power in the informal sector. Although in the north these events were explained through revitalized kanun customs of feuding, urban hot spots such as Shkodër, Vlorë and Tropojë, situated on international trafficking roads, suggest more modern causes.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Apart from the Muslim Sunni Islam majority, there exists the historically influential Islamic Sufi community of the Bektashi, a Dervish order (previously 15 to 20 percent of the population). The nation is 8 to 10 percent Catholic in the north and 15 to 25 percent Orthodox in the south. During the national renaissance in the nineteenth century (the rilindja) the notion that "the faith of the Albanians is Albanianism" was established. Meant to integrate national religious divisions, this idea recalled syncretistic pagan and crypto-Christian beliefs. In 1967 the communist state imposed the doctrine of "scientific atheism." Religious freedom was relegalized in December 1990. Numerous adult baptisms, conversions, and strategies of shifting identities and names were prompted by Islamic scholarship, Greek working permits for the Orthodox, and international missionary work.

Magico-religious beliefs were shared across the religious denominations. They find expression in practices that protect against evil, such as the worshiping of patron saints, pilgrimages (a prominent destination is Baba Tomor, a personified mountain), the wearing of amulets, soothsaying, euphemistic naming, and the placement of dolls in the eaves of new houses to distract the evil eye. In the 1990s, such practices became more common and fertility magic prospered. Historical practices such as couvade (the father acting as if he had borne the child) survive only in sayings.

Religious Practitioners. When in need of advice, comfort, or education, people historically consulted priests, wandering monks, or Muslim clerics, depending on local availability. After 1948 religious practitioners suffered persecution. After 1991 Albania became a major destination for missionaries from the United States, the Vatican, and Saudi Arabia. Informal practitioners such as magical healers found new niches.

Ceremonies. With regional variations, life-cycle rituals on the occasions of giving birth, the first haircut (and nail cut), baptism, weddings, and funerals have syncretistic features in terms of Albanian modernity or tradition and Western or Eastern influences. In the 1990s old church festivals, processions, and pilgrimages were revived, as were local oath-giving ceremonies, reconciliation rituals, and purification rites for new land or harvests. Nevertheless, there are still communist-introduced secular rituals such as the International Women's Day, May Day, and particularly the New Year, which compete in significance with religious holidays.

Arts. Polyphonic and epic traditions of singing and folk dances were nationalized through changing texts and framed in competitive performances on the stages of national folklore festivals (every five years in Gjirokastër) during the communist period. Literature, prominently represented by Ismail Kadare, offered novels in which metaphors of history and culture served as subtle criticism. Theater, film, sculpture, and painting were vehicles for ideology. With the postcommunist crises, theaters were transformed into bingo halls while interregional cooperation profited from the flourishing oppositional activities of Macedonian and Kosovar Albanians. Tirana's National Art Gallery featured a critical exhibition of socialist realist paintings at the turn of the millennium.

Medicine. Diseases were attributed to evil spirits (vile) that often symbolized the illness and had to be ritually distracted, predicted, diverted, or exorcised by ritual specialists such as folk doctors (hekim), dervishes, and "wise old women" with inherited herbal knowledge. Communist health policies replaced such traditions with a network of hospitals, research institutions, care centers, and maternity stations and by providing free medical treatment. However, in postcommunist times many underpaid medical personnel emigrated, particularly from rural areas; new diseases and drug abuse spread; and pharmaceutical and medical supplies were lacking, all of which opened niches for informal or traditional ways of practicing medicine.

Death and Afterlife. Across religions, female ritual specialists guided the chorus of wailing women in repeating poetic antiphonal two-verse death chants. Regionally, face scratching, the cutting or tearing of one's hair, and other mourning rites were practiced. Northern collective male rituals included vocalizations and gestures in unison that might have indicated the loss of means of communicating (hearing, talking, seeing) with the deceased. The deceased person was presented in his or her best clothes, sometimes with items attached, such as an apple, cigarettes, a rifle, or money, which were meant to ease the journey. The deceased was always buried in a grave that faced the sunset (to the west). Old graves featured wooden crosses decorated with pre-Christian symbols. Cemeteries were usually situated at elevated sites at the periphery of villages or cities. Mountain sites associated with murder were indicated with stone piles (murana). In the communist era private ritual mourning was done without religious references. National remembrance days honored the "heroes of the liberation war" (prominently partisans) at monumental "martyrs' cemeteries" at elevated parts of cities.

For the original article on Albanians, see Volume 4, Europe.

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Internet Sources

Albanian Human Development Report 2000, UNDP Albania. http://www.al.undp.org.

STEPHANIE SCHWANDNER-SIEVERS