Behind Stone Walls
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BEHIND STONE WALLS CHANGING HOUSEHOLD ORGANIZATION AMONG THE ALBANIANS OF KOSOVA by Berit Backer Edited by Robert Elsie and Antonia Young, with an introduction and photographs by Ann Christine Eek Dukagjini Balkan Books, Peja 2003 1 This book is dedicated to Hajria, Miradia, Mirusha and Rabia – girls who shocked the village by going to school. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Berita - the Norwegian Friend of the Albanians, by Ann Christine Eek BEHIND STONE WALLS Acknowledgement 1. INTRODUCTION Family and household Family – types, stages, forms Demographic processes in Isniq Fieldwork Data collection 2. ISNIQ: A VILLAGE AND ITS FAMILIES Once upon a time Going to Isniq Kosova First impressions Education Sources of income and professions Traditional adaptation The household: distribution in space Household organization Household structure Positions in the household The household as an economic unit 3. CONJECTURING ABOUT AN ETHNOGRAPHIC PAST Ashtu është ligji – such are the rules The so-called Albanian tribal society The fis The bajrak Economic conditions Land, labour and surplus in Isniq The political economy of the patriarchal family or the patriarchal mode of reproduction 3 4. RELATIONS OF BLOOD, MILK AND PARTY MEMBERSHIP The traditional social structure: blood The branch of milk – the female negative of male positive structure Crossing family boundaries – male and female interaction Dajet - mother’s brother in Kosova The formal political organization Pleqësia again Division of power between partia and pleqësia The patriarchal triangle 5. A LOAF ONCE BROKEN CANNOT BE PUT TOGETHER The process of the split Reactions to division in the family Love and marriage The phenomenon of Sworn Virgins and the future of sex roles Glossary of Albanian terms used in this book Bibliography Photos by Ann Christine Eek 4 PREFACE ‘Behind Stone Walls’ is a sociological, or more specifically, a social anthropological study of traditional Albanian society. It focusses, in particular, on the formation and evolution of household and family structures among the Kosova Albanians and was written on the basis of field work carried out by the author in the village of Isniq in western Kosova in 1975. The study provides the reader with a fascinating glimpse into an exotic world which will soon belong to the past, as the author predicted. Of all the phenomena which the ‘tribal’ society and heroic culture of the Kosova Albanians produced in the past, few have been regarded as more unusual than the family structure itself, characterized by a strongly patriarchal hierarchy and an extended family, with typically up to 50 members living in one family compound or indeed under one roof. This type of family structure, known to anthropologists commonly by the Serbian term ‘zadruga,’ still occurs in Kosova today, though in a more sporadic fashion than it did thirty years ago. In the other parts of the southern Balkans it has long since disappeared. Up to the 1970s, the Kosova Albanians lived in relative isolation from the rest of Europe and, despite the open nature of Yugoslav socialism, their traditional society had not been affected in any major way by globalization. The mid-1970s, however, marked a period in which Yugoslav gastarbeiters in Germany and Switzerland - many Kosova Albanians - were returning home and bringing back not only money but also new ideas. The author of this book, the late Norwegian anthropologist Berit Backer (1947-1993), had the good fortune of penetrating this very foreign, though European culture just before the turning point, i.e. before it was subjected to substantial foreign influence and change. It was a time of relative political stability and social order in Yugoslavia. After years of oppression by the Belgrade authorities, the Albanian population of Kosova had finally been given a modicum of autonomy and official equality with the other peoples of the Yugoslav federation. This period was brought to an end by the Albanian uprising of 1981, which signalled the beginning of the slow and irreversible demise of Yugoslavia. ‘Behind Stone Walls’ was first submitted as a masters thesis to the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo in Norway in April 1979, but was never made available to the public at large. Berit Backer was a great friend of the Albanian people and, during the 1980s, became a leading human rights activist, in particular in defence of the cause and rights of the Kosova Albanians. Her activities on behalf of the International Helsinki Federation and her active support of Kosova Albanian refugees in Norway made it impossible for her to find time to prepare a definitive form for the publication of the thesis during her lifetime. Since her untimely death in Oslo on 7 March 1993, many people have expressed an interest in the publication of this work. For this reason, the editors agreed to prepare the present edition even though they were, alas, unable to consult the author herself. It is possible that, had the project been discussed with her, the author might have made substantial alterations, amendments, omissions or additions to the original manuscript. The present, somewhat revised version omits many of the graphs and charts of the original thesis as well as much material of purely economic and statistical concern. Readers particularly interested in the economic aspects of Kosova village life in the period are advised to consult the original typescript, of which a number of copies are in circulation. ‘Behind Stone Walls’ offers much food for thought to anyone interested in the structures of traditional Albanian and Balkan society. It is hoped that through this publication, marking the tenth anniversary of the author’s tragic murder, the memory of Berit Backer will live on. Robert Elsie 5 Olzheim, Germany Christmas 2002 6 BERITA – THE NORWEGIAN FRIEND OF THE ALBANIANS On the morning of International Women’s Day, 8 March 1993, Norwegian newspapers were full of the shocking news about a murder the night before. The victim was Berit Backer, an anthropologist working for the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), whose dedicated work for one of the least- known peoples of Europe was very abruptly, and prematurely, brought to an end. It did not happen as a consequence of an accident, but by the sudden whim of a lonely refugee who temporarily lost his mind and stabbed to death the very person who once had helped him. The shock was immense, and even more so in Albania and Kosova when it was known that the perpetrator was a Kosovar Albanian. Who was this Northern friend of the Albanians who, at least in Kosova, became a virtual legend of her time? After the death of Berit Backer, letters of condolence were received from many different people and organisations. The representative for The International Helsinki Federation, Yadja Zeltman, wrote of her: “Her unrelenting work and dedication to the cause of the Albanian communities fostered greater understanding for the needs of those communities, especially those in Kosova, and the need for a greater involvement of the international community in the defence of their basic human rights.1“ That Berit Backer was the friend of all Albanians was confirmed in many ways, as shown by these words from Macedonia: “Her death is such a loss for the cause of Human Rights that we feel we have lost one of the great crusaders for humanity.2“ During her lifetime, Berit Backer accepted many commitments and had many international contacts. As she had been politically active since childhood, not always without complications, she learnt the virtue of discretion from an early age. People need not know more than necessary. She therefore divided her life into pieces, like a cake, and the people who constituted the pieces of the cake hardly knew about the existence of one another, or how numerous they were. Some of them were politically active or humanistically dedicated, others were colleagues in different projects, and still others were simply friends she spent some good times with. After her death, Berit Backer’s collection of Albanian books was donated to the library of the Ethnographic Museum, now part of the University Museum of Cultural Heritage in Oslo. An agreement with her family also made it possible for the author of these lines to gain access to the remaining material: finished and unfinished articles and manuscripts, photographs, negatives and parts of her correspondence. Although I had known Berit Backer for almost eighteen years before she was killed and had worked very closely with her at various periods, it was quite a surprise to discover how little I actually knew about her life and work. As I have been entrusted with the task of writing this introduction, I fear I may disappoint the reader. My view of Berit Backer may not coincide with his or her views and memories of her. All I can say is that, although there is still much information missing, I have done my best to describe the life and work of Berit Backer, a deeply devoted friend of the Albanians. An unstable adolescence Not only did Berit Backer’s life end in a most tragic way, but she seemed destined for dramatic events long before she was born. A young woman, who later became Berit’s mother, was arrested together with a group of radical students in April 1941 during the German occupation of Norway in World War 1 Letter of condolence to the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, dated 9 March 1993. 2 Letter of condolence to the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, from the president of the Democratic Forum for Human Rights in Gostivar: Milaim Pejsi, 9 March 1993. 7 II. German forces found out that the young architect Ina Margrethe Danielsen happened to be the daughter of Admiral Edvard Christian Danielsen, who had managed to flee to Britain during the occupation and remained there as part of the Royal Norwegian Navy, co-operating with the Admiralty of the British Home Fleet.