Humiliation and Reconciliation in Northern Albania: The Logics of Feuding in Symbolic and Diachronic Perspectives

Authors: Schwandner-Sievers, S.

Editors: Elwert, G., Feuchtwang, S. and Neubert, D.

Journal: Sociologus

Volume: Supplement 1

Pages: 133-152

Abstract:

Soon after the collapse of communism in Albania, the northern parts of the country made headlines for the resurgence of ritual blood feuds. Based on the author's ethnography and historical sources, this article explores the ways in which local interests and politics of exclusion and inclusion, in pragmatic discursive recourse to the rich symbolic logic of the past, explain the reinvention of both blood feuding and reconciliation practices in the ethnographic present of postcommunist Albania. It also suggests that various state formations throughout history, for reasons of self-interest, helped create and consolidate the social logic underpinning ritual blood feuding practices, even if these could be temporarily suspended during totalitarianism, rather than ever effectively abolishing these.

Source: Manual

Preferred by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers