An Endless Funeral Feast

An Endless Funeral Feast The Reemergence of Customary Law And the Practice of Blood Feuding As Alternative Pathways to Justice In Post-Communist Albania By Derek Basler Submitted to Central European University Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology First Reader: Prof. Andreas Dafinger Second Reader: Prof. Alexandra Kowalski CEU eTD Collection Vienna, Austria 2021 i Abstract After approximately four decades of repressive efforts by the totalitarian regime of the communist party, the Kanun, a framework of customary law, reemerged in the national discourse of Albania in the turbulent beginnings of democratic rule throughout the 1990s. While there were various areas in which the Kanun's precepts proved salient, notably in the case of land inheritance, perhaps the most sensational example was the return of the practice of blood feuding, known as gjakmarrja. Estimates on the number of victims of this practice vary, but it arose to such an extent that several organizations were founded to ameliorate the situation. Though some research has been devoted to both the Kanun and the practice of blood feuding, from ethnographers at the turn of the 20th century to contemporary times, many have treated the Kanun as an example of “legal primitivism” (Bardhoshi 2017), an archaic vestige of traditional customs as opposed to an alternative legal pathway to attain satisfactory justice within a juridical system widely considered corrupt and ineffective. The purpose of this research is to understand how the invocation of the Kanun, particularly in the practice of blood feuding, obtained symbolic value and strategic importance used by individuals to obtain satisfactory process of justice in in contrast to dissatisfactions with the state-sanctioned legal system. If “self-isolation [and] nothing else” (Cedoca 2017) connects the current practice of blood feuding to the codified tenets of the Kanun, what significance does this precept hold? Why, despite the efforts of the communist regime, has it reemerged in the transformation into democratic rule? What are the logics that determine seeking reconciliation through the outlets available, be they organizations or individual mediation? Keywords: Albania, Legal Pluralism, Kanun, Blood Feuding CEU eTD Collection ii Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Establishing the Case ................................................................................................................ 3 The Heart of This Research ....................................................................................................... 5 Historical Context ............................................................................................................ 7 The Origins of the Kanun .......................................................................................................... 8 The Communist Regime ........................................................................................................... 9 The Tumultuous Transformation into Democracy ................................................................... 10 Literature Review ...........................................................................................................11 Past Approaches to the Concept ............................................................................................. 12 Issues with the ‘Ascertained’ Kanun ....................................................................................... 15 Legal Pluralism ....................................................................................................................... 17 Further Theoretical Considerations ......................................................................................... 18 Methodology ..................................................................................................................20 A Question of Positionality ..................................................................................................... 20 Fieldwork .............................................................................................................................. 21 Limitations............................................................................................................................. 22 Legal Pluralism and the Reemergence of Kanun ..............................................................24 The Localized Justice of Blood Feuding ............................................................................30 Cases Without Memory ..................................................................................................33 CEU eTD Collection Disputing “Blood for Blood” – The Debate on the Death Penalty in Albania .....................40 The Process of Reconciliation ..........................................................................................43 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................50 References .....................................................................................................................53 1 Introduction It was in late July 2019, sipping some post-dinner raki and listening to the symphony of crickets accompanying the sun setting behind the mountains in Curraj i Poshtëm, a remote village in northern Albania, that I became aware of the Kanun— Albanian’s comprehensive set of customary laws. I had arrived in the village accompanied by a friend and an interpreter, a student from the university in the nearby city of Shkodër, with the intention of filming a documentary about life in these remote parts of Albania’s mountainous north. In the back of my mind, however, I was more so ulteriorly motivated by the rumors that I had come across during my first visit to the country of a long history of blood feuding between the families and villages of this region sanctioned within the customary tradition. Spurred by these rumors shared among fellow travelers, I decided to make the hike to the two villages of Curraj, Poshtëm and Epërm (lower and upper, respectively, referring to their locations on the mountain) to see for myself in May 2017. Without any way to effectively communicate between the individuals who became my gracious hosts during this visit, nor any outward signs indicating the practice, I was left with more questions than answers, inspiring my return trip with some linguistic assistance. As we sat there relishing the tranquil evening, myself and two companions and our host, making small talk over drinks and cigarettes, I asked about the concept that, at that point, I had only been nominally aware of: “What is the Kanun?” What followed was a nearly three-hour- long conversation lead by the interpreter and our host, touching upon not only the blood feuds but the many other facets – family, hospitality, communal relations, justice – contained within it. The thing that surprised me the most was the fact that our interpreter, a young man who has CEU eTD Collection spent his life in the urban center of Shkodër, was the most vocal about it, indicating that both the Kanun and the practice of blood feuding was a wider phenomenon in Albania and among the Albanian communities in neighboring countries. It was this conversation that inspired me to devote a substantial amount of time and research to the topic. 2 There are several reasons why I am choosing to begin this piece by relating this story. First and foremost is to point to the exoticization and objectification by which the customary laws of Albanians have come to occupy the mainly Western imagination. As I mentioned, rumors initially sparked my interest, and these rumors spread to me not from Albanians but from fellow Western travelers, which were naturally tinged with exoticized implications. As Albanian anthropologist Nebi Bardhoshi, whose poignant critiques on the study of the Kanun and blood feuds I have attempted to take to heart in my endeavor, states, “the anthropological discourse on the Kanun and on the blood-feuds in particular are always founded not only in legal Orientalism (or Balkanism), but also, primarily, in a legal primitivism, a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that is associated with the quest for an exotic other.” (2017: 332) This leads to the second point, which is to lay bare the fact that much of what inspired me to focus on this topic stems from a problematic entry point rooted in sensationalist exoticism. In an effort to be self-reflective of this fact, part of my intention alongside an analysis of the contemporary context of the Kanun and the practice of blood feuding is an attempt to counter much of the discourse on the subject that is steeped in, to use Bardhoshi’s terminology, “legal primitivism” and overarching stereotyping of Albanians in general. As my research has revealed to me, and which I hope comes across clearly, is that the contemporary invocation of the Kanun and blood feuding has very little to do with the “medieval” code of laws established in the 15th century. Instead, both serve more so, as Sandra Joireman calls it, “totemic representations,” recalling pre-established norms in order to respond to present-day issues relating to state- CEU eTD Collection imposed judicial inefficiencies, endemic corruption, and the ongoing transformation from a totalitarian, communist dictatorship into a market-oriented, democratic system. (Joireman 2014) Furthermore, while many

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